4 min readApr 5, 2023 01:15 PM IST
First published on: Apr 5, 2023 at 01:15 PM IST
In their campaign opener against the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan on Sunday, hosts Hyderabad were handed a crushing 72-run loss. However, head coach Brian Lara hasn’t lost hope in his side and fancies the team can bounce back and move forward on a positive note.
The 53-year old referred to a golf analogy to break down the aspects of the game.
“If I was to use a terminology, Brook will know or any golfer would know that if you start with a birdie, you can only go long,” he explained during the team’s post-match dressing room talk.
“We didn’t start with a birdie. We start with a bogey. It will only go up,” he added.
“It’s just the start and I think that It’s not a bad thing to start this way.”
Brian, further spoke on the team’s performance and advised the players to use a certain template and execute their plans accordingly.
“I’m not gonna dwell on the entirety of the match, but what I see and what I would ask is that the bowlers, they were 85 in 6. I believe that performance, 118 in 14 is a tremendous performance. Tenth over 120 or 121, 80 something in 10, brilliant. 160 in 15, 42 in 5. On that track, brilliant. What I want to ask you guys, as bowlers, this can be used as a template,” explained Lara.
Sharing his thoughts on the positives and key takeaways from their first game of the season, Lara urged the players and said, “Make sure to put the positives deep down inside.”
“All the bowlers contributed. At one stage you were looking at 230 plus. I don’t want to work with the practice to get it right and then we lose the form of war. I’m just asking you guys just to sort of put that deep down in the memory bank and make sure next time you find yourselves in a situation where we need to do that, maybe a much better position, maybe 45 in 6 or 45, 45 in six. You can repeat that performance. That’s all I’m asking. Well, the rest of it,” he added.
Motivating the players to work on their tactics and perform well for the team, the head coach said, “In terms of the guys as well, which is Samad, Mayank with the bat. I’m sure that individually even though you’ve scored a bit of runs you would know the areas that you need to sort of improve on.”
“The other guys who got out on one ball they’re going to work hard to get themselves there to join you. So you don’t want them to come up and you go down. So I just hope, again, the guys perform with both bat and ball, try it as much as possible to do some repetition and get things right for us.”
He affirmed his clan that they can make a comeback, like they did last season.
“It’s a tough loss, but I think it’s very similar to last year and you came back and I expect us to do so again,” he concluded.
The Orange Army square off with KL Rahul’s Lucknow in their second match of the season on April 7th, at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Head Coach Brian Lara shares his thoughts & positives from team's first game of the season. (Videograbs) 
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