Suresh Raina: It was difficult to make comeback after 2 losses
BCCI
Suresh Raina admitted that coming back to the winning ways after losing two straight games was difficult for the team, but heaped praise on the team for the way they did it. Steve Smith, the Supergiant skipper, blamed the failure of the middle-order as the main reason for their defeat.
Coming back from two straight losses in as many games, Gujarat Lions made a stunning comeback as Aussie pacer Andrew Tye used his knuckle ball intelligently to return 5 for 17 to orchestrate a seven-wicket victory for the hosts.Â
"It was difficult for us to come back strongly after losing the two games," Raina said at the post-match presentation. “I thought AJ (Tye) bowled brilliantly. He is a very smart cricketer who varies his pace, especially in the death overs," he added.
The opening duo of Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith had led the foundation for the chase with a 94-run opening stand and Raina feels that, too, played an important part in the game.
"Baz (McCullum) and Smith did it for us. They have done it for CSK and they did it again today."
A visibly disappointed Supergiant skipper Steven Smith, quite surprisingly, blamed the continuous losing of wickets after getting off to a good start for the loss.
The Aussie skipper said, "I don't think that wicket really changed over the course of 40 overs. It was a pretty good wicket. We got ourselves into a good position but lost a few wickets in clumps and we weren't good enough tonight.
"The surface played better than we thought it would. When Dwayne (Smith) and McCullum get going, it's hard to stop them and we could not come back after that. One of the disadvantages of being a new team is that we are still trying to establish our best XI.”Â
After Pune posted a quite defendable total of 171, their bowling attack appeared completely impotent against the explosion that was the opening partnership of McCullum and Smith, who put on 94 for the opening wicket. Â After that, the rest of the order just had to not do anything silly to ensure a maiden victory for Gujarat.
