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NEW DELHI, Apr 25: After a couple of losses in their opening games, Sunrisers Hyderabad have enjoyed a five-match winning streak and head coach Tom Moody has attributed role clarity for the recent success. Sunrisers cantered to a nine-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday to rise to the second spot in the points table. "We are very specific in our training as to where we are playing, who the opposition is," Moody said at the post-match press conference.
"We make sure that the players have the understanding of what their roles are and when they are called upon in certain stages (they deliver)," he added. Sunrisers pace attack led by Marco Jansen (3/25) and ably supported by Umran Malik (1/19) and T Natarajan (3/10) left the star-studded RCB line-up rattled with pace, swing and seam.
"We knew the ball would swing today and knew Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and Marco can use it to their advantage. Swinging the ball provides a challenge in the early overs especially when the opposition is trying to get a reasonably positive start," Moody said.
Left-arm pacer Jansen bowled a fiery second over to claim the wickets of Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat and Moody felt those first six balls by the South African was the turning point of the game. "It was a superb first over, taking three top wickets and opening the game so early for us in the powerplay was the difference in the game, RCB struggled to recover from it.
"He took advantage from there, put pressure on the opposition from the get go. It was a great performance." After an underwhelming season last year, Natarajan is back to picking up wickets for SRH at crucial junctures and Moody was full of praise for the left-arm pacer.
"Nataraj is fit now, last year he wasn't. He has worked extremely hard in the last 6 months. He understands his role, he has a very particular role and one of the best at doing it.
"He is always under pressure, bowling the tough overs at the back of the powerplay and at the back of the innings when teams are looking to go after you. He has the skillset to manage that. |
