IPL 2017: It Will Be Nice For Us To Start Getting Some Wins On The Board: Brad Hodge

Apr 10, 2017 at 11:22 AM

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IPL 2017: It Will Be Nice For Us To Start Getting Some Wins On The Board: Brad Hodge

Gujarat Lions head coach Brad Hodge has hinted the team might tinker with the team combination after suffering their second successive loss. After losing the first match by 10-wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders, the table-toppers of last year’s put up another poor display against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday (April 9).

Put in to bat first, Gujarat Lions could manage only 135 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. In reply, the defending champions chased down the total by losing just one wicket.

Speaking at the post-match conference, Hodge rued the second successive loss but at the same time did not sound too worried as these are still early days in the tournament.

Excerpts from his interview:

On the team’s second loss:

It wasn’t good. I think the conditions batting second on this particular wicket in this ground is more suitable. We clearly didn’t post a big enough total. We lost three quick wickets to Rashid. That pushed us on the back foot, and we were never going to be able to post a big enough total.

On young spinner Tejas Baroka:

“This is his first game. What we saw was some real courage, coming on in the fourth [fifth] over and bowling to David Warner in the Powerplay as a young legspinner was pretty challenging, I’d have thought. I reckon he did a good job. There’s a couple of things we picked up… I think he’s got good skills, good control and I think when you see the game on the line, he’ll be a real tough proposition for few teams. He’s got a good wrong ‘un. I don’t think he really bowled a bad ball today. Just that Davey and Moises were in good form. There’s a good upside to him I think.”

On the team composition:

“Yeah, we were tempted [to play either Faulkner or Tye], yes. I guess it is one of those 50-50 calls where either you can make that change, or back those guys again to be successful. Unfortunately it didn’t work. And we’ll look at that combination again.I think we need to analyse a few areas of our game. I think we need to improve and understand that, ‘look your last year was a great season and it is going to take some hard work and effort to repeat that.’ I guess the good thing is that we are still searching for answers and it is only early in the tournament. So it’s good we really have the opportunity to knuckle down, have a look at the particular areas and I am sure that selection criteria [of picking an overseas bowler] will come into play.”

On the team’s batting performance:

“I think they read him, they just said they didn’t play him that well. He’s a good bowler and we identified that before the game that he was going to be a threat. We just lost three consecutive wickets back to back and all pretty good players too. Whenever that happens in T20… I thought we did a pretty good job to post a total which might’ve been challenging. I thought Dwayne Smith played well at the end. Dinesh Karthik put on a good performance. Reality is, with that batting line-up, 130 is probably not good enough.

In this tournament, we’ve plenty of time to regroup. You’re going to lose matches – that’s part of the IPL, that’s part of any cricket theme…Yeah, but it will be nice for us to start getting some wins on the board.”

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