Sunrisers Hyderabad fast bowler Sandeep Sharma believes that two consecutive wins in low-scoring games should give his team a lot of confidence.
“Frankly, each of the bowlers played his role superbly in defending such a low total,” Sandeep said after Sunrisers defeated Kings XI Punjab on Thursday.
Sandeep felt there were many turning points in the match like leggie Rashid Khan dismissing Rahul, Basil Thampi removing the dangerous Gayle and his own double strike in the 16th over.
On Kane Williamson’s leadership, the spirited pacer feels that the New Zealander is a very good captain and very calm even in pressure games like the last matches.
“The best part is that Kane is always positive. His advice even when Gayle and Rahul were going strong was just not to look at the scoreboard but to give off our best and try to take wickets. That worked for us. If the leader is so positive, you can only expect positive vibes for the entire team,” Sandeep said.
Advice to other bowlers
“Normally, I bowl with the new ball for I tend to read the pitch quickly and in a position to tell the other bowlers as how to go ahead with the task.
“I felt tonight the knuckle ball and the slower ones should be tried and not bowling seam up was the better option as it was never easy to hit on this pitch,” Sandeep explained.
For his part, KXIP captain R. Ashwin felt they kept attacking too much and lost wickets in the middle. “But, these things happen in this format, we have a long season still,” he said.
“We fielded badly. Dropped too many catches for a 20-over game. If we had taken at least couple of them we could have restricted them to 20 runs less,” he said.
Praise for Rajpoot
“Well, Rajpoot (pacer Ankit) is tall, nippy, got the ball to swing and hit the good lengths in the first few overs. Not every day you get five wickets in a T20 innings,” he said.
“We do have a finisher but he is not coming off. We need to solve all the puzzles. Hopefully, those in whom we have great trust will come good soon. They are all quality players,” the losing skipper said.
