Been losing too many wickets in powerplay, middle-order still work in progress: Lara

Hyderabad, Apr 19 (PTI) Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Brian Lara feels losing wickets in the powerplay has been a problem for them in the ongoing IPL and they need someone in the middle-order to bat deep and finish off games for the side.
“Losing wickets always sets you back. The couple of victories we had, we had an opener batting through. Doesn’t matter how deep you bat, you want to make sure the right batters are getting the opportunity to score runs and we didn’t take that opportunity in this match,” Lara said at the post-match press conference.
SRH slumped to their third loss in five games when Mumbai Indians defeated them by 14 runs here on Tuesday.

Chasing 193, SRH were bowled out for 178 in 19.5 overs.

Lara said SRH’s middle-order is still a work in progress.

“It’s (middle-order) a work in progress. We need to have guys who are thinking to take the game till the end. There are some great examples in IPL, (Rahul) Tewatia, (David) Miller. We do need that sort of person to understand how to calculate, who are the bowlers still to come and plan properly. We have been working on that a lot but we weren’t the better team today. We have to accept that.

“We seemed to be losing too many wickets in the powerplay throughout the five games we have played. That means you are always trying to play catch-up, trying to consolidate the situation to get better. We will have to improve in that area,” the West Indies legend said.

Lara said SRH were always in the game but lost too many wickets to get a grip on the chase.

“We felt that we are always in the game. I think the pitch was 175-180 pitch. It spun and was a little bit slow off the deck. To get 190 was a decent score from Mumbai. We sort of tried to stay in the game throughout but we lost wickets consistently through our chase. It slowed us down,” the 53-year-old said.

“Both Mumbai Indians and us were coming off back-to-back victories, so we knew they were picking up some momentum and I felt that today, they played better cricket and came out on top.”

Meanwhile, MI left-handed batter Tilak Varma, who made a quick 37 off 17 balls, said he is open to batting at any position for the sake of the team.

“I am always comfortable playing in any situation. I have developed my game according to the needs of situations. I am confident and told the management that I can bat anywhere in any situation,” he said.

Elaborating his game plan against SRH, he said, “The wicket was turning a bit for the spinners so I was just thing about the situation and what the team needs. I didn’t want to take on the spinners so I waited for the fast bowlers.” PTI SSC AM SSC