England fast bowler Reece Topley is ready for the balance of power to shift towards the batters when England make their Super 8 match against co-hosts West Indies. After a group stage in which bowlers held the fort for most parts, the experienced player is eager to embrace the challenge of adaptability that’ll be offered on a St Lucia surface as well.
“It’s nice that there’s obviously new conditions to try and adapt to but I think it’s going to make for a pretty good cricket wicket regardless,” Topley said on the eve of the game. “I think the wickets have been kind to bowlers so far so it might be time to take a bit of medicine and it might be in the business of problem-solving now and things are a bit more complicated for us as a bowler but the mission statement is pretty much the same.”
While Topley added that a batting-friendly wicket at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium would be given where bowling strategies as well as bowler evaluation metrics, there were a few areas to attack the opposition, especially with the new-ball and the cross-breeze aided swing as well.
“Yeah, that’s probably a complex way to look at it. I think fundamentally it’s still the same, it’s still trying to nullify someone’s strengths and I think maybe now you could probably say that when they’re going towards the end maybe a single is a win now as a bowler whereas last week you could be a bit more attacking and try and be a bit more aggressive with field placements and whatever,” Topley said.
“But this week it might be a bit different obviously playing here there’s a different pace in the wicket I think I’ve noticed it’s a lot more bouncy as well but then similarly I suppose that’s an advantage that we can try and exploit that as well in the powerplay trying to get some nicks and things like that. Yeah, breeze is obviously welcomed as a swing bowler. It definitely makes the ball swing for a little bit longer, maybe a little bit more. But then equally there’s a side that’s hard to shut down. The ball certainly flies when you go that way. So, I think the batsmen are going to equally try to exploit it as much as the bowlers. So, it’s going to be a good contest, almost like a game of chess out there,” he again shared.
“Yeah, I think that’s something we’ve already brought up is we’ve not played in front of an opposition crowd for a long time now,” he said. “Even when we came here in November, it was very well supported with English fans. Yeah, hopefully we can put on a good show regardless of the outcome. It’s going to be amazing, I’m sure it’s going to be a night that hopefully we all look back on in our career that was quite a poignant night in this World Cup and helping us to achieve our goal,” Reece Topley concluded.
