Brad Hodge was perhaps disappointed by the way Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith and Aaron Finch got out against the Delhi Daredevils, but he will not advise them to be cautious henceforth.
“Look they are natural stroke-players. I don’t want to certainly take that away from them. Maybe we have to watch the shot selection for sure. Some little tweaks, but not necessarily to rein in those guys whose strike rates are 170 and thereabout. If they do that (touch high strike rates) they are going to blow things away. We are certainly going to encourage that, but if they adapt to the conditions, it would be better,” said Hodge.
The Lions have lost three matches, two in a row and Hodge believes that if you let your guard down, you are going to be found out.
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“This is just the way the IPL goes. It’s such a tough tournament, there’s lot of travel involved and just one-day break between a couple of games. It’s just one day rest before the next game too. Certainly we will search for wins, but it’s also about riding those up-and-down performances.
Delhi Daredevils’s Rishabh Pant also received encomiums from Hodge.
“Young Pant (Rishabh) played a super innings. He stepped up to the plate and made us look average.
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“Hats off to him. We were not able to respond,” said Hodge of Pant’s scintillating 69 (40b, 9x4, 2x6) in his third IPL match on Tuesday.
On his part, Pant said: “It (half-century) gave me a good feeling; the support staff and players are backing me. So it’s a good feeling. I have justified their confidence in me. I just played some normal cricket. ”