SHARJAH // Tom Moody, the Sunrisers Hyderabad coach, has given his floundering batsmen a vote of confidence and is confident they will start firing soon.
The Sunrisers have lost both their matches, scoring 133-6 when batting first against the Rajasthan Royals and then managing only 121 as they chased the Kings XI Punjab’s 193-6 on Tuesday night in Sharjah.
The openers – Aaron Finch (2 and 19) and captain Shikhar Dhawan (38 and 1) – have failed to give the team decent starts, putting 2 and 11 for the opening wicket in the two matches, while Australian star David Warner has scored 32 and 8.
Read more: Sunrisers fall to Kings KI Punjab as Glenn Maxwell continues IPL barrage
“Look, it’s certainly no time for us to be panicking about our top order, or about the fact that we are two-zip,” Moody said. “We’ve got a world class top order and that’s proven over time. So I’ve got absolute confidence that the top order will fire and will put us in positions where we will win games.”
Moody has also backed Irfan Pathan after his disappointing performance against the Kings XI. The Indian allrounder went for 28 from his two overs and managed just five runs coming in at No 6.
“Irfan, unfortunately, in his first over, dragged a couple of balls short in the middle of that over, which just gave an impetus to that third over, particularly after the start we had with Dale [Steyn] and Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar],” Moody said.
“But again, Irfan is an experienced bowler and has shown that he has performed successfully not only in the IPL, but internationally. There’s no doubt that we expect better and knowing Irfan, he’ll certainly reflect and work particularly hard on getting that right.”
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