Batting issues have been addressed: Moody #SRHvsCSK

Sunrisers Hyderabad are on a high this season. They have seven wins out of eleven games, five of them coming at home. Come Wednesday, they will look to extend their winning run against the Chennai Super Kings. 

CSK are table toppers at the moment and Sunrisers will want to get those two vital points going into Wednesday’s game. With a win against the Delhi Daredevils in the previous game, SRH coach Tom Moody said, the mood in the camp was oozing with confidence and the team was looking forward to a key contest.

“Our preparation for Wednesday is no different than the preparation for any other match. We are making sure that every player is well prepared physically and mentally and are all looking forward to the contest.”

One of the major highlights for the Sunrisers this year has been their bowling. The likes of Ishant Sharma, Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra have helped the team defend totals as low as 120 and Moody credited their bowling coach Waqar Younis for it.

“Waqar has been a great asset to the side. To have someone of his stature and experience has been of great help for the playing squad and the support staff. He has passed on a lot of wisdom to the players and planned well, given the various surfaces that we have played on. As a player, you have to adjust the way you play and the way you bowl according to the wickets. His formula has been a successful one,” Moody said.

But batting has been an area of concern for the home team, wherein posting big totals on the board has been an issue. The cause of concern has been recognised and attended to, according to the SRH coach.

“We were very aware in our mid tournament review that there are certain areas we needed to sharpen up and the batting is certainly one of them. Our batsmen have had to deal with pretty tough surfaces and if you look at the average of totals in the games that we have played, they have all been relatively low. The pleasing thing for me is that different players have done well on different occasions.

“We did not have Shikhar Dhawan for the first half of the tournament, but now he has come in and played a couple of vital knocks for us. Hanuma Vihari too has done well when it came to building up partnerships with Kumar Sangakkara and so has Darren Sammy. We have batted well in the last couple of games and we are not worried about it.”

Moody also backed their captain Kumar Sangakkara to come good in the tournament. Sangakkara has scored just 117 in his eight innings so far, with a dismal average of just over fourteen.

“We feel Sangakkara is batting pretty well and has been instrumental in stringing important partnerships in the tournament so far. There is no pressure on Sangakkara to perform. We know he is a class act and you know class players tend to step up against class oppositions,” Moody said.

Playing at home, SRH sure know a thing or two about the conditions. Most games here have been low scoring ones, but Moody was confident that it will be an even contest against CSK.

“Everyone is confident playing at home. We have a clear understanding of our strategies at home. The credit should be given to the players who have executed our plans well. I think we will be playing on a new wicket which is a reasonably good surface. I am sure it is going to be a decent surface, were there will be good contest between the bat and ball.”

source: iplt20.com