Pant’s knock wakeup call, still need to work: Sandeep
WORRIED SRH squeezed out a win despite Pant’s ton but going forward they aim to be more careful NEW DELHI:
On Wednesday evening, the eve of their tie against Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody had pointed out how his side’s bowlers have been helped by the wicket in Hyderabad, which is tough for batsmen, and how the Ferozeshah Kotla game could be a bit different.
He was proved right as a young Rishabh Pant tore into Sunrisers Hyderabad attack that had up until now been miserly. Thanks to Pant, Delhi Daredevils took 135 in the last 10 overs to reach 187 which though eventually didn’t prove enough.
Right after the match, pace bowler Sandeep Sharma, one bowler who was spared, said that while their bowling has been good, they still need to think about situations like these.
“Our plan was to bowl wide outside the off-stump because he generally hits well straight down the ground. However, he came up with strokes like the reverse scoop to negate that. Going forward, we need to have plans for players like him. How to get a player like him off strike or how to minimise the damage that he does. So we’ll discuss that in the remaining matches,” said Sandeep.
It was one of the rare occasions that Sunrisers had conceded so many runs but as Moody had pointed out earlier, they had been bowling on helpful surfaces. Delhi Daredeviils bowling coach James Hopes too added that the Hyderabad ground is bigger in size meaning there are far lesser boundaries there than in Delhi, thereby helping the bowlers.
Sunrisers, as Sandeep pointed out, will need to take wickets with the new ball upfront when confronted with wickets like these. “There hasn’t been help in the wicket especially the movement and swing. So it is tough. But we have to improve and take wickets with new ball.”
Our plan was to bowl wide outside the offstump because he generally hits well straight down the ground. But he came up with strokes like the reverse scoop
SANDEEP SHARMA, On Pant