SWASHBUCKLERS BOTH: Sunrisers Hyderabad's skipper David Warner and
Gujarat Lions' Brendon McCullum share a light momnet on the eve of their
match on Thursday.
With ambitions of moving up, Sunrisers Hyderabad ready to take on Gujarat Lions at home
The face-off between two teams, one up there in the
points table and the other aspiring to get there, is bound to have some
high-octane action as Gujarat Lions (GL) takes on Sunrisers Hyderabad
(SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium here on Friday.
“Yuvraj
(Singh) is available and very much in our thoughts,” was all that SRH
coach Tom Moody would say on the eve of the contest. With a good
five-day break from their last match on Saturday, were the Sunrisers
following the other teams?
“We’ve watched all the matches but there’s no point worrying about what other teams are doing,” said the strapping Australian.
On
linguistic barriers between the team and Mustafizur Rahman, Moody said,
“He has fitted into the team well and the group has warmed up to him.
He’s a funny guy. He’s not fluent in English and nor are we in Bengali.
But cricket is a universal language.”
As with most
teams, was the Lions’ top trio the major threat? “No doubt about it and
we are prepared for it, especially after playing well against them last
time.
“They’ve got match-winners too,” he added as a footnote of caution.
Whether
Yuvraj’s selection could upset the mix, he replied, “It’s not difficult
to accommodate a match-winner. He adds a lot to the side. Yuvi brings a
lot of versatility to the team,” he stressed.
Gujarat Lions’ Dinesh Karthik was quite modest about his consistent form.
“My experience helps when it comes to consistency, especially in knowing how to react to certain situations.”
On the Lions slumping to two defeats on the trot, the wicket-keeper batsman became introspective.
“They
were two tough games. We batted poorly. And batting is our obvious
strength. It is important not to change too much in the face of
setbacks,” he observed.
On whether the middle
couldn’t match the top order, he said, “Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) has got
runs for us. It’s only a matter of time before (Dwayne) Bravo gets
going.”
Since momentum mattered so much in this tournament, were the two defeats hard to take?
“It
is difficult to regroup after two losses. It has got the boys together
and we are working on correcting the mistakes,” he said.
Whether
the sweep was his go-to shot, the swashbuckler said, “It depends on the
bowler and situation. I try to be instinctive and not to be too
programmed. It’s a love-hate relationship with the sweep.”
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