New Delhi: Their pace attack has been the most fearsome this IPL season but Sunrisers Hyderabad swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels it would be a tough task for his team to counter the marauding Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen when the two teams clash in the final tomorrow.
Hyderabad edged out Gujarat Lions by four wickets here last night in Qualifier 2 to set up a summit clash with Bangalore, who had beaten the same opponents in Qualifier 1.
“We will definitely strategise because I read somewhere the other day that Virat Kohli has scored 35 per cent of RCB’s runs. It’ll be a big task for us to get (Chris) Gayle, Virat (Kohli) and AB (De Villers) and later, (Shane) Watson, out. We are hoping for a good contest,” Bhuvneshwar said at the post match press conference here.
“We’ll enjoy for now because we know there’s a pressure match coming up,” he said.
Bhuvneshwar said losing Mustafizur Rahman in the Qualifier 2 was not an ideal situation for them but backed Kiwi paceman Trent Boult, who replaced the Bangladeshi pacer.
“Mustafizur did really well but losing him in a crucial game wasn’t good for us but Boult did very well. It’s a part of the game that he went for a few runs in the second last over. But if you look at him, he has really worked hard in the nets. He knew that there might be a chance for him to play either the semifinals or finals but you can’t say he has given runs; it’s a part of the game. Losing Fizz wasn’t good for us,” he said.
Warner had earlier said that he would like his batsmen to put up big totals for the bowlers to defend but Hyderabad decided to bowl last night.
Asked about the decision, Bhuvneshwar said keeping the opponent’s strength in mind, it was the best decision to take.
“We had decided in the meeting to bowl first. If you look at their (Gujarat’s) batting line-up, they have good batsmen like (Aaron) Finch, (Suresh) Raina, (Brendon) McCullum and (Dwayne) Smith. They are good chasers. So we wanted to make them bat first so that we could get them out early and chase down the target,” he explained. .
PTI
