SRH bowling coach Franklin all praise for Tripathi, Abhishek

HYDERABAD: Chasing a target of 214/5, Sunrisers Hyderabad faced little problem as they romped to a comfortable four-wicket victory in their last league game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
In a tall chase, the hosts lost Travis Head on the very first ball. But the new batter Rahul Tripathi, who came into the playing XI after a long time, made an immediate impact scoring 33 runs off 18 and lent a good hand to Abhishek Sharma in the partnership that helped them chase down the total.
SRH fast bowling coach James Franklin is mighty pleased with the way Tripathi came into the side and delivered straight away. "I think Rahul Tripathi did that brilliantly. He hasn't played a game for a wee while, so to come out and really suit himself in the manner that he did and create that partnership with Abhishek was probably what got us ahead of the runway in terms of chasing down a pretty big score," he said after the win.
He also said the partnership between Tripathi and Abhishek that helped them clinch the result. "Yeah, obviously a great partnership from the foundation for that chase. And then the others, they came in and just continued it on. And I think that just meant that we just stayed ahead of the rate the whole time. And maybe those last 3 or 4 overs, we took a bit too much time. But we also got the job done which was good."
When asked the reason behind bringing in Tripathi for the clash, he revealed, "We just chased the dynamic for today's game. We've been picking our squads very much on a game-by-game basis. And we went with the extra batters today as opposed to the extra bowler. And it worked in terms of using Rahul in the way that he did. He played fabulously. But as we move forward into the playoffs, again, the selection debate will happen and we'll work out what our best squad is for whoever we play and whatever game we play. I think that'll be good."
After a couple of quiet games, Klaasen also returned to form, playing a key role in the victory. "I think when you've got such a high-quality player like Klaasen in our team, when they've probably had a couple of games pushed by their own standards, they're probably not entirely happy with how quickly they work out what they need to do to make those little subtle improvements moving forward. And I think we've seen that tonight with how brutal he is against spinners. There are a couple of balls there which, if you actually look back at them, they're pretty good balls from Punjab Spinners. But he's so quick on pick-out length. He's devastating to pull a couple of balls straight, I think, straight. But looking at the six, brilliant. And that's what he's done for a period of time now. So, hopefully tonight he's shown some nice signs for himself and for us moving forward tonight."
Meanwhile, Sanjay Bangar, Punjab Kings’ director of cricket development said, "I suspect that we could have bowled a little bit better, which would have meant that once the field spread out then we could have applied a little more pressure. We gave away 15-20 runs too many in the powerplay," he added.
He also rued that they failed to come up with good shows in their home ground. "I felt we just couldn't adapt to the home conditions because if you look, we played seven away matches and won four. And, at home, we just won one match. So, if a team has to progress further in the tournament, certainly that is a worrying aspect as to why you can't win many more home games," Bangar said.