His four-wicket haul brought down to earth the high-flying Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said it was the proper execution of their game plan which helped his team notch up the dominating 10-wicket win during an IPL clash in Rajkot.
Player of the match, Bhuvneshwar returned with figures of 4-0-29-4 to snap Gujarat’s invincible run and register their second consecutive win in IPL-9.
“We have a strong bowling attack and it was our plan to bowl first and restrict the opposition to around 150 so that it would be an easy chase for our batsmen,” Bhuvneshwar told reporters after Hyderabad defeated Gujarat by 10 wickets last night at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium.
“We did the plan against Mumbai Indians and did the same here and both the time our plan worked and we won the match while chasing,” he said.
Talking about their strategy, Bhuvneshwar said: “We bowled to our plan by using slow cutters and wanted the batsmen to use their power and our plan worked. Most of the Gujarat Lions batsmen got out while playing big shots.”
Bhuvneshwar removed inform opening batsman Aaron Finch, who had hit three consecutive fifties before this match, on the fourth ball of the first over and Gujarat never recovered from the early damage.
The SRH invited the Lions to bat first and restricted them to 135 runs and then chased down the target of 14.5 overs without losing a wicket.
Captain David Warner made unbeaten 74 while Shikhar Dhawan, who had scored only 16 runs in three matches before the game, remained not out at 53.
Talking about Finch’s wicket, Bhuvneshwar said: “Finch had won three matches on trot for his side and it was necessary for us to get him out quickly, and I’m happy that we could do so by sending him back in first over.
“They have a strong batting line up and if they don’t lose wickets in first ten overs, their batsmen can be dangerous for the opposition, but we managed to take wickets at regular intervals and not allow them to score big runs,” he said.
Praising Gujarat Lions skipper and his Uttar Pradesh state-mate Suresh Raina’s knock, Bhuvneshwar said: “It’s difficult to stop him from scoring runs once he settles down at the crease, but we did not allow GL to build a partnership and that was the plus point for our side.”
It was one bad day for us, says Tambe
Gujarat Lions leg spinner Pravin Tambe defended the team’s poor performance against the Sunrisers Hyderabad saying that “it was just a one bad day” for their side.
“We have seven specialist batsmen in our side, who can turn the match single-handedly, but it was just a one bad day for us that none of them could make runs except skipper Suresh Raina,” Tambe told mediapersons after the match where Gujarat Lions suffered a humiliating 10-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hydrabad.
Gujarat Lions, who enjoyed three consecutive victories on trot in the tournament before yesterday’s match, could score only 135 runs losing 8 wickets after being invited to bat first by the opposition, who chased down the target without losing any wicket. The victory was accomplished with 31 balls still remaining.
Raina was the top scorer for his side making 75 off 51 balls. When asked whether the Gujart Lions batting depends a lot on Aaron Finch, the leg-spinner replied negative.
“We have good match winning players in our side, but none of them could do much with the bat. It was not our day and it happens to with every team on a particular day,” he said.
Tambe said that his team were probably 20 to 22 runs short.
“The wicket was neither a bad nor an easy to bat on. the result of the match had been different if we could have scored around 160,” he said.
The veteran leg-spinner hopes that the Gujarat Lions will bounce back in the next game to be played against RCB at home ground.
“We have to play our next game at home and we want to give our better performance in that game and definetely we will bounce back in the next game,” he added.
