Stuart Law.
Credit: X/@T20WorldCup
New York: Stuart Law has been around his fair share of teams in trouble or teams which are looking to make a mark against the odds.
Having had stints as the head coach of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies and Afghanistan in the past, the former Australian cricketer was experienced enough to hand-hold the United States of America at their first World Cup.
Lo and behold, US are on the cusp of qualifying for the Super Eight stage of the T20 event.
When queried about how he gets the best of a team so green, Law delves into his process easily but doesn’t once allude to the challenges.
“See, I’m not here to tell them how to play, I'm here to help them play the way they want to play,” he said on Wednesday. “They know that I've got their back if it doesn't quite work their way. But also, if they aren't performing, well we need to sit down and address it as well.
“So, look, good relationships are built on trust. I think there's a lot of trust in that dressing room towards me and what I'm trying to achieve with the players. I'm just sitting here watching them go out and play the way they want to play. They want to be the best they can be. I'm just here to help them achieve that. I told them ‘I'm not going to tell you how to play. That's not my job. My job is to get you to play the best cricket you can’. I think we've seen that.”
Speaking on their ‘best cricket’, US, after sticking it to Pakistan in a shock win a few days ago, nearly repeated the feat against India on Wednesday. Had it not been for a few errors towards the end of an anxiety-inducing chase, US could well have tasted a victory against the mighty Indians.
“I think we probably could have won that. That's probably the feeling in the dressing room right now. But good teams and great teams find ways to win from adverse situations. And I think the Indian dugout would have been nervous at one stage as well. But great teams, they find a way to win,” he said.
As for the pitch at the Nassau County International stadium, Law empathised with the ground staff but didn’t seem particularly impressed with the surface itself.
"When the wicket is up and down and arriving at two different paces, even though the bowler is not changing his pace, it becomes hard for a batter to get into a rhythm to score,” he said.
“So, look, I feel for the ground staff. They had a very short time to get the pitches up to their standard, what they thought would be optimum. It hasn't worked out that way for whatever reason. I know it hasn't been through a lack of hard work. It's just a shame that we haven't seen the big scores that we wanted to put on here in the US.”