In their initial games, it was the top order of the Gujarat Lions which struck fear in the hearts of the bowlers. The destructive duo of Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum has simply demolished several bowling attacks in the past, and this time around as well, they have shown glimpses of their abilities.
However, since the last few games, the top order of the Suresh Raina-led side has fizzled out. McCullum and Smith haven’t been able to replicate their destructive abilities and that in all has dented the Lions to a great extent. In their game against the Delhi Daredevils in Rajkot, the top order faltered once again, leaving a lot to be desired and putting more pressure on the middle order.
Post his side’s loss to the Daredevils, Lions coach Brad Hodge stated that he expected more from his top order. “They (Top order batsmen) are free spirited players. They are natural stroke-players and I don’t want to certainly take that away from them,” Hodge said. “But we certainly just have to have a little watch at our shot selection and adapt to the conditions a little bit better. They are just little tweaks. I don’t want to rein in those guys when their strike rate is 170, certainly going to encourage that, but more so to adapt to conditions a little bit better.”
Speaking about the surface last evening, Hodge said, “It was not ideal. I must say the surface exactly wasn’t what we were looking for. It is a little disappointing.” “This is your home ground, you expect a little bit better. But having said that, you cannot use that as an excuse. The opportunity was there. “If we could’ve put 170-175 on the board, we could’ve won that game. Again, we were chasing only 155 the other day against Kings and we couldn’t get the job done. We can’t blame any of the surface or the practice. Our skill set was just not good enough on that day. We need to brush that off. We need to address it, step up and come again.”
“If you are 3 for 20, losing three of your best batters upfront, you’re going to be in trouble. Same as what happened the last game,” Hodge said. “In the last game against Kings, Axar Patel took a hat-trick. A couple of balls didn’t even turn. We lost three wickets in an over. And again today, three wickets in seven [sic] balls with three of our best batters. Wickets in Powerplay, something that we need to look at,” Hodge concluded.