Hodge concerned about Powerplay failures

Gujarat Lions coach Brad Hodge has admitted there were "quite a few areas of concern" after the team's second defeat in a row at home. According to Hodge, losing wickets in clumps in the Powerplay - they lost three wickets in eight balls and tottered at 24 for 3 after four overs - for the second successive match was a major factor behind Lions' eight-wicket loss to Delhi Daredevils. They had similarly slipped to 39 for 4 inside seven overs against Kings XI Punjab.

"If you are 3 for 20 [sic], 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. 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 was also miffed with how no-balls have cost his side crucial wickets in the tournament. When Ravindra Jadeja overstepped to reprieve Sanju Samson, who was stumped in the 16th over, it was the second such let-off in three games. Steven Smith was similarly reprieved in Pune when left-arm wristspinner Shivil Kaushik bowled him off a no-ball for 41. Smith went on to score 60 more runs.

"Unforgiveable, unforgivable," Hodge said. "Who knows what could've happened if that was given out for Sanju. Next ball he gets a free hit, the ball goes for a boundary, game over. If you're just going to let your guard down for a moment, you're going to be found out. Hopefully, we can dust ourselves off and adjust with the differences and indifferences that we have and come again strongly. I would certainly hope that these last two games hurt very much."

Hodge backed his top order, strengthened further by Aaron Finch's return from injury, to take the attack to the opposition, but said their shot-selection needed to be more prudent.

"They are free spirited players. They are natural stroke-players and I don't want to certainly take that away from them," he 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."

Hodge was also critical of a pitch, which while a little slow, didn't appear to be particularly difficult to bat on.

"It was not ideal. I must say the surface exactly wasn't what we were looking for. It is a little disappointing," he said. "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."