Coach gets team past boundaries

TURNS out Wellington’s have been listening.

Firebirds coach Jamie Siddons has always been a man with firm ideas about his cricket, particularly where Twenty20 is concerned. These have not always met with universal approval or been that easy to adapt to.

But, having come into the domestic Twenty20 competition cold, the Firebirds are warming to their task.

Three wins on the trot have the team up to second on the points table and better still, as far as their coach is concerned, is that they are playing the kind of cricket he has been preaching.

Be it where you bowl or how you cope with being hit, or where or how you hit the ball when it is your turn to bat, Siddons has had a consistent message.

‘‘We’ve talked about the same things for three years but these guys are experienced now and are starting to believe that we’ve got to make it a respectable score [to chase] and if it’s respectable, we can get it,’’ Siddons said.

Each of the three wins has come chasing: against Otago, Auckland and then Central Districts on Sunday. None were perfect pursuits but the encouraging thing about all of them was the quality of the ball-striking.

All the Firebirds, at least down to Jeetan Patel at No 9, can hit now, which was not the case when

players Siddons became coach.

Take Stephen Murdoch, for example. Once a guy who could go over midwicket on his day, Murdoch was primarily an accumulator, capable of a decent drive and good on the cut.

Now he clears boundaries around the ground.

Siddons has spent two winters teaching Murdoch to hit ‘‘and this last one was probably the most significant, where he’s really bought in and done the work on it’’.

‘‘But working on it and then doing it in a game is a whole new ball game and, as I’ve said in the past, it probably takes three to four years until you start to see stuff and this is probably it.’’

Murdoch’s 61 from 35 balls on Sunday certainly caught the eye of a few people.

But Siddons had seen it all before in the Westpac Stadium nets, then when Murdoch made an unbeaten 155 to steer Wellington to a Plunket Shield win over Canterbury late last month.

‘‘He did in the four-day game and everyone was really shocked at his innings. Everyone but him and me probably.’’

Siddons has a similar tale tell about most of his players.

Wellington won’t win every game this summer but, individually, the players all seem to have broader skills, thanks to Siddons.

They will need every bit of them this weekend, when they host Auckland (Friday), Canterbury (Saturday) and CD (Sunday) at the stadium.

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