IPL 2017: We Were Left With No Choice But To Play Watson As An Opener, Says Stuart Binny

Apr 11, 2017 at 12:14 PM

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IPL 2017: We Were Left With No Choice But To Play Watson As An Opener, Says Stuart Binny

For the third time in a row, Royal Challengers batsmen failed to fire. AB de Villiers made a stunning comeback, scoring 89 from only 46 balls but the lack of support from the other end did not help Bangalore’s cause as they were restricted to 148 for 4 by Kings XI Punjab despite de Villiers’ whirlwind knock.

What was even more baffling was to see Shane Watson deciding to bat first on a pitch that was expected to be a belter of a batting pitch. The decision backfired badly as Kings XI Punjab chased down the total inside 15 overs. The idea to drop Chris Gayle did not look like a wise idea either as makeshift openers Shane Watson and Vishnu Vinod failed with the bat.

In the post match conference, Stuart Binny revealed the reasons behind those unexpected decisions.

Excerpts:

On the loss:

“I just think we did not put enough runs on the board especially when you win the toss and look to bat. 148 was just not enough upfront “

On the wicket:

“When we batted, the wicket was two-paced. Especially the ball that was bowled cross-seamed held into the surface a bit. So, it was a type of the wicket where you needed to play good 15-20 balls before you could get the pace of the wicket. You couldn’t just go out straightaway and play shots as I found out initially. I tried to go hard in the first six balls but then got only one single. Then AB passed me the message that it was a wicket which requires you to play 18-20 balls to get the pace.”

On the playing eleven:

“I don’t think we played any combination wrong. It is important how we start in the first six overs in a T20. Chris Gayle has given us the starts in the beginning which we didn’t get today but if you are two down in the first six with hardly 20-25 runs on the board, you are going to struggle.”

On the decision to bat first:

“We thought the wicket would play a lot better, that’s why we chose to bat first. We saw the grass on the wicket and we thought the ball would come on a lot better which it didn’t. Only after the dew came in, the ball started to skid more onto the bat. As you saw in the second innings, they hardly played which kind of stopped.We didn’t expect that to happen.”

On Watson opening the innings:

” Watson has normally batted as an opener in his whole career.That was the option. We cannot play more foreigners in the team so that was the only option we had available. If Chris had to sit today Watson had to take his place upfront.So it wasn’t a tactical change but just that we were left with no choice”

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