Pune's batting a concern: Rahul Sharma

Pune - Pune Warriors leg-spinner Rahul Sharma feels that his team’s batting is an area of concern for them.

“We have been bowling well in the last two three overs, but in the death overs things are going a bit wrong since the last three-four games. And the batting is not clicking,” Sharma told IPLT20.com.

“The boys are a good bunch and keep motivating themselves, all are strong. But then I think we are not clicking together. It is a new team and the captain is also new. He is captaining well, making good changes while bowling, but the batting order is not getting set and the middle-order is collapsing,” he said.

Pune Warriors lost their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Chennai Super Kings by 37 runs at their home ground Tuesday. Pune’s three key batsmen Robin Uthappa, Luke Wright and Abhishek Nayar were run out.

“The wicket was good for batting and we got a decent start but the loss of three-four quick wickets pulled us back. The wicket was good for batting if you spent some time on it,” he said.

“In a way, getting run out in T20 is a crime and we had a couple of runouts and that did make a difference in this match,”he added.

Asked how he had planned to restrict Michael Hussey, Sharma said: “He (Hussey) is in good form and I am also doing well for my team. So the challenge for both us was who will do better for their team. To bowl at the stumps and not give him room to play the cut was a plan because he plays the cut and the sweep shot very well. So I had kept two fielders for him if he tried to play the sweep shot. So the bowling was well overall.”

“Since we have a good batting wicket, the plan was not to give the batsmen too much room because they do have a lot of hard-hitters lower down like MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel. We wanted to restrict them to as less as possible like 140 or 150, but then according to me we gave about 20 runs more.”

Talking about his bowling, Sharma said: “I always want to give my team a breakthrough whenever I am bowling, and that is what I was trying. My mindset is always good. And I enjoy bowling to a good batsman.”

“I don’t try too many things in T20. My thing is not to give the batsman too much room and that has given me success. So that’s what I try to do.”

Pune Warriors’ next match is against Royal Challengers Bangalore here Thursday. Sharma said he will try to dismiss Chris Gayle early.