Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin is totally astonished by the quality of batsmanship in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). On Saturday in New Chandigarh, PBKS comfortably beat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their third game this season. Chasing SRH’s 219/6, PBKS were never threatened in their pursuit. Openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh scored fifties to set their team on a path from where one could only win.
Both teams particularly played well in the powerplay. SRH scored 105 in six overs thanks largely to Abhishek Sharma, who overall made 74 off 28 balls. PBKS scored 93 in their turn. Even last night, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had led Rajasthan Royals to 97/1 at the end of the powerplay. This mindset of going great guns in the first six overs is particularly common in the IPL. Former Australia wicketkeeper batsman Haddin breathed a sigh of relief that he was lucky not to be a bowler.
“I’m glad I’m not a bowler in the first six overs… The one thing we did really well after those first six was we stayed calm, got the game back. The middle overs… That’s where it was won. Ricky [Ponting, PBKS head coach] spoke to the players: they know their plans, and just stay calm. Things might be bubbling up, but you know your plans. If you get a chance, you pounce on it, like they did here,” he said after his team’s win.
‘Nobody wants a single anymore’
Haddin, two-time World Cup winner in 2007 and 2015, revealed how the batsmen of today were not willing to rotate the strike. “It’s interesting to talk to batters about rotating strike — they say we don’t need to do that anymore, we just put it in the second tier. They need to keep their courage and be brave in the first six covers, we’re very clear about our bowlers getting wickets… We’ve seen that in the game against Kolkata, against Finn [Allen] and [Cameron Green]. The mindset is to get wickets, not be defensive,” he said.
With their third win in four matches — remember one of them was a washout against Kolkata Knight Riders — PBKS stay in second place on the points table behind Rajasthan Royals, who beat RCB on Friday night to make it four out of four. PBKS and RR are right now the only two teams this season who haven’t lost a game yet. Shreyas Iyer’s men will now be on the road for their tie against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
