Sunrisers to focus on batting against RCB

Hyderabad, April 6 (IANS):

Sunrisers Hyderabad will focus on their batting in Sunday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) game against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Rajiv Gandhi international Cricket Stadium here.

The team’s chief mentor and strategic analyst Krishnamachari Srikanth is confident that the batting would come through in the game. Sunrisers won their first game against Pune Warriors India here Friday by 22 runs, despite defending a total of 126.

Srikanth told reporters after the practice session that it was going to be a crucial game.

“It was a fantastic win. I always I believe in any format the first match is always a crucial match. I think the boys did an excellent job. The energy was fantastic,” he said.

Srikanth attributed the win to the team effort.

“What we like was the energy in the boys. Knowing that 126 is not a very big total, they came together, took up the challenge and did not give up.”

Asked about the failure of batsmen, he said it was not right to make judgement on one particular game.

“IPL has just started. I am sure we have tremendous star batsmen. It will start happening one by one.”

The former India batsman said the win had given the team tremendous self confidence. The team is united, gelling well and the keenness to succeed and win is there. He added that the wicket was not easiest to play shots on but Amit Mishra and Dale Steyn were simply awesome.

“I call it a team effort. Perera took two wickets and got crucial runs. Everybody contributed to the success of the team, which I liked. The batting will be big focus for us. We want to get a good total. Anything above 150 will be an ideal total in the conditions that we have.

“Whatever kind of wickets you play. At the end of the day, it is a challenge and our boys are willing to take the challenge,” he said, when asked if Sunday’s match would be played on the same wicket.

To another query about the plan against RCB, the chief mentor said they plan for every team.

“It is always better that you don’t have too many stars because we like to keep things simple. We know we are playing a good side tomorrow but we are willing to take up

the challenge.”

He said Shikhar Dhawan called and told him that he is rearing to comeback and do well.