Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills are good options for England going into the T20 WC, opines Mahela Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardena backs Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan
|Southern Brave coach Mahela Jayawardene stated that Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan can play a crucial role for England in the T20 WC in UAE. He also added that the duo’s death bowling partnership was very crucial in Southern Brave’s triumph in the inaugural edition of The Hundred in England.
Southern Brave's men side won the inaugural season of The Hundred by defeating Birmingham Phoenix in the final on Saturday. Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan were at their best throughout the season with a great economy at the death overs. The left-arm quick, Tymal Mills, had an economy rate of under 1.11 runs per ball at the death, while Jordan gave 1.37 runs per ball. Both combined together and proved to be match-winners for their side in the tournament. Mills scalped eight wickets in 10 matches with an economy of 6.67, while Jordan was expensive with an ER of 9.33 but picked up nine wickets in the tournament.
Mahela Jayawardene, who coached Southern Brave in the inaugural edition stated that that the duo together can continue their good run and provide good options to England in the T20 World Cup in the UAE.
"You have some amazing talent in CJ but obviously Jofra is not going to be available for the World Cup and I think CJ and him had a very good partnership for us. It gives England a lot of good options going into the World Cup, especially in the UAE as well” said Jayawardene, reported ESPN Cricinfo.
He reckoned that the duo’s excellent death bowling partnership helped them cruise to the finals.
“From the beginning, we knew that those two were going to be our closers and that we needed to make sure we took it to that part of the game so that the experienced guys could close it for us. What we initially found difficult was the Powerplays where we weren't picking up wickets”, Jayawardene said.
The 44-year-old attested that Tymal Mills has been fantastic throughout the competition with his good economic spells. He added that he will be disappointed if Mills misses out from the England squad for the ICC global event this year.
“Throughout the comp he's been fantastic. In the last two games, the eliminator and the final, I think he bowled 40 balls for 20-odd runs and didn't give away a single boundary. That shows the quality of T - a healthy Tymal Mills is always going to be an asset. In the shorter format of the game he knows his skills and it's a hard skill that he's executing. I'd be disappointed if he's not on that plane for the World Cup," he said.
As for Mahela Jayawardena, he has carried his success formula from Mumbai Indians to different parts of the globe with great success. This was Jayawardene's fourth title as a coach, following three IPL wins with the Mumbai Indians. He was highly impressed with the way his team handled pressure situations throughout the tournament to be crowned as the champions.
"Ideally we would like to have a good start but we were blown away in our first game by Trent - completely outplayed. In Wales it was a good game [against Welsh Fire] but we made a few mistakes and realised we needed to eliminate them and the boys reacted brilliantly. The turning point was probably London where we defended a small total at Lord's: we were out of the game but guys came back and defended and that belief carried through.
It wasn't one or two guys, it was a complete unit. We're very proud of the boys and the way they've managed the pressure. The last three or four games for us have pretty much been play-offs every game. We didn't want to let our destiny to be controlled by other results. You need to peak at the business end of the tournament and we did”.
The former Sri Lanka cricketer stated that he has no intentions of taking up the coaching role in international cricket despite his recent success in various leagues across the globe.
"Having done 18 years of international cricket as a player I don't want to live out of a suitcase for 12 months of the year. This is a good challenge for me and it's early days. I don't do too many tournaments so that I have my personal time to spend back home with the family. I'm happy to help out as a consultant here and there [with Sri Lanka] but not on a full-time basis."
