Hyderabad wicket is challenging, not bad: Tom Moody

Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody said on the eve of their match against Chennai that the wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium wicket was challenging but not as bad as it looks.

Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad chief coach Tom Moody said here on the eve of their match against Chennai Super Kings that the wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium wicket was challenging but not as bad as it looks statistically.

"I am sure tomorrow it is going to be on a new wicket again. I am sure it will be a good contest between bat and ball," he said. Sunrisers, who have a good bowling attack, have won all the five matches played here so far and no team could cross 130 runs on this surface. "We feel there has been a number of games that teams including ours` have not scored what we felt a par score on it. I think we have bowled particularly well on it, at times our opponents, too, bowled well on it. I think it is not as bad as it looks statistically. It is decently good surface," he said. On bowling coach Waqar Younis, he said the Pakistani speedster had been a great asset for the team. "Waqar has been a great asset to us. Someone of his stature and experience has been of great help not only to the playing 11 but also for support staff. He has passed on a lot of wisdom to all the players and we planned well." Asked about the preparations for the match against CSK, he said it was no different from that for the other matches they played. "Every player is well prepared physically and mentally. We are looking forward to the contest," he said. The Australian said the team was confident playing at home. "We have got a clear understanding of what our strategy should be at home. The credit goes to the players, they have executed that very well." To another query, the coach said a mid-tournament review showed that there are certain areas where they need to sharpen up and batting is one of them. "We recognise that on one hand our bowlers have been very good. One of the reasons for that is the surfaces we have been playing on are quite challenging for the batsmen. We can`t have both. We can`t have our batsmen at the top of the run-scoring table in IPL and also have bowlers at the top as well the economy and strike rate." Moody said while more players need to step up, the pleasing thing for him is that the team is not relying on any one individual. He pointed out that different players were standing up on different occasions. He felt they batted pretty well in the last couple of games. IANS