After winning 6 matches out of seven, Gujarat Lions have now lost three matches on the trot.As the tournament is entering its business end, the team management will be really worried about the recent performances.
After last night’s defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Lions all-rounder Dwayne Bravo admitted that his side’s batsmen failed to adapt to the swing and a two-paced track.
The GL batsmen posted a paltry total of 126 from their 20 overs, which was comfortably chased by SRH.
The condition were initially favourable for the swing bowlers and SRH bowlers made the most of it.
“I think we didn’t adjust quickly. When you look at their IPL games, few of the games played here in Hyderabad, it’s always a high-scoring game. It’s a high-scoring venue,” Bravo said after the match.
“So I think the batsmen maybe took it in mind that ‘okay, it’s another high-scoring game’, but it wasn’t. It was a different surface, the conditions were more challenging for batting and we, as batsmen, as international players, we didn’t adapt quickly enough.
“Instead of trying to get 175-180, we could’ve easily tried to get 135-140 and it could’ve been a winning total. It’s a learning process and definitely, we have to regroup as a team and adjust to all these situations because you can’t keep playing like every game you try to get 180 and 190, that’s not going to be possible.”
Praising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the West Indian said that conditions were ideal for him and playing against him in that condition was tough. He said that his team was short by 20 overs and a score around 145-150 would have been a match-winning one.
“It was very good bowling. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I think the way Bhuvi bowled his first over… we all know once the condition is in his favour, it’s very difficult to play him. He’s one of the best swing bowlers in the world,” he said. “You’ve got to give credit. I think Ashish backs it up very well. They bowled well to us, they bowled Test-match areas.
“The ball was doing a bit early on, so it was very difficult to score. To contain Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum, two of the world’s most dangerous players, definitely, you’ve got to be doing something good. I think it was a very challenging wicket, but at the same time, we’re all professional cricketers, so we can’t give any excuses with our batting display. I think we were 20 runs short.”