IPL 2024: ‘Dube put in tremendous effort to be more effective against pacers’, says Eric Simons

Mumbai, April 15 (IANS) Apart from Chennai Super Kings Ruturaj Gaikwad top-scoring in the side’s 20-run win over Mumbai Indians, the in-form Shivam Dube also left an incredible impression in the innings by smashing an unbeaten 38-ball 66, laced with ten fours and two sixes at a strike-rate of 173.68.
In Sunday’s match at the Wankhede Stadium, Dube faced just one ball from leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal, and was peppered with fast-bowlers bowling constantly at him to stem the run-flow by using short balls, his nemesis.But Dube combined his trademark power along with timing and placement to hit all of his boundaries with immaculate ease and precision against MI’s five-man fast-bowling attack. His cover drives were also a sight to behold as Dube continued his good form in IPL 2024 and more importantly, in getting his big runs off fast-bowlers.”He is putting a tremendous amount of effort in, especially the fact that when he comes on, they take the spinners off, they put the pacemen on, so he’s become more and more effective at that. It’s about how you control the match and someone like him can control it because they can’t spin the ball anymore.”They don’t want to, they’re scared to. So it is great to see the rewards he’s getting, particularly against the pacemen, because the more effective he gets with that, the more the opposition has to strategize against us. But a tremendous reward for what he’s doing,” said Eric Simons, CSK’s bowling consultant in the post-match press conference.In six innings of IPL 2024, Dube has scored 242 runs at an average of 60.5 and strike rate of 163.51, including two fifties. “I think one of the most important things you can give your