At a glance
- Gujarat Titans 100ao chasing 199
- “Wonderful players” didn’t perform
- Bowling also under fire in game
Gujarat Titans batting coach Matthew Hayden was particularly scathing after his team’s “horror” batting display led them to a huge 99-run defeat against Mumbai Indians on Monday.
“Unacceptable scorecard”
Speaking with media after the game, Hayden said:
” I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit. It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about his day, really, apart from Rabada’s performance with the ball. So we’ve got some work to do, definitely.”
The Titans have a very strong batting lineup, with Sai Sudharsan (135 off 93), Shubman Gill (265 off 175) and Jos Buttler (206 off 132) as their top three,and with Washington Sundar (137 off 93)and Glenn Phillips (67 off 25), runs should not be a problem. However, in this game all five were out with 55 on the board, in just 7.4 overs. Hayden continued to say:
“When you look down at our batting line-up, we’ve got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the concept of this Gujarat Titans franchise…So you can’t be sitting here and being happy about a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!”
Middle Order Struggles
The struggles at the top of the order have exposed the middle order earlier than expected. Shahrukh Khan (35 off 25) and Rahul Tewatia (49 off 42) have also found it challenging, as they are not accustomed to coming in so soon. Hayden had this to say:
“The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips – his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you’ll take that all day long in the majority of games.
“However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion’s share of the batting. We shouldn’t be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That’s not their role. That’s not what they train for.”
Hayden said that GT have an aggressive and adaptable batting unit but their execution fell apart on the day. So far this season, GT have scored 200+ twice. Hayden continued:
“We are a very good thinking batting unit. We’re not a conservative batting unit. You don’t go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they’re an adaptive batting unit…they’ve got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn’t.
“So the worry isn’t just today about the middle order. It’d be unfair to sat that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because at that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking.”
Even though the batting display wasn’t good, Hayden also took a swipe at the bowling attack. Their one bright spark in their bowling attack was Kagiso Rabada, who took 3-33 in his four overs. He said:
“I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
“When you look back at those final four overs, that was just a ‘horror show’ – 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance…it was purely an executional thing.”
Hayden will need to sort out their batting concerns quickly if Gujarat Titans are to qualify for the playoffs. Their next fixture is crucial – against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday (24th). The Titans currently sit in sixth so will need to start winning to keep their hopes alive.
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