IPL 2016: Dwayne Smith says Gujarat Lions were confident of chasing 200
Gujarat Lions opening batsman Dwayne Smith said that the team had quality batsmen to chase down even a target of 200 considering Royal Challengers Bangalore’s weak bowling line-up.
Gujarat Lions chased down 181 runs to win their fourth match this season as Virat Kohli’s century went in a losing cause. The strong opening partnership between Smith and McCullum set up the six-wicket win for them against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
"[If] we would have been set 200, we could have made 200 as well," Smith said after Lions registered a six-wicket victory with three balls to spare for their fourth win in five games. "Having said that, we still have to bat properly, and [I am] glad that we did that to get over the line."
Smith was one of the changes made by Gujarat Lions after their ten-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad. He believed that the extra batsman was a boost to the top order and allowed them to fire from the start.
"We have to play on how the pitch was playing," Smith said. "The extra batsman was the way to go and I think we missed that in the last game. It's good to see that we've got back to winning ways.
The experience of playing together in the past for Chennai Super Kings helped Smith and McCullum understand each others game and got them to set up the crucial partnership of 47.
"It was just natural. Myself and Baz [McCullum] have played for a long time," Smith said. "We know each other. We complement each other well."
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s new left arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi defended the captain’s decision to bat first and said that the side thought they had about 15 runs above par. He spoke about Watson’s last over and said that the failure of the bowling unit had lost them the game much before the 20th over.
"Had we won the game, nobody would have questioned our decision to bat first," Shamsi said. "We couldn't bowl well to pull off a victory. Virat [Kohli] is one of the best in the world. He knows what he is doing and if a batsman like him bats through the 20 overs, we were sure to get somewhere close to a decent total on board. We actually thought we had got a little more than par on that ground and on the pitch.
"We have got some clear plans from the management which we need to execute and hopefully in the next game we will be able to pull it off. It's not about the last over but it is about the 20 overs."