Gujarat Lions didn’t adjust quickly enough: Dwayne Bravo

The Gujarat Lions slumped to a loss at the hands of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Dwayne Bravo, however, has pointed out that failure to adjust to the conditions had cost the Gujarat Lions dear. The Hyderabad bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra began their spells with maiden overs, a rare sight in recent limited-overs’ cricket.

The surface of the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium has always been conducive to batsmen. However, on the night, just two batsmen in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Aaron Finch.

“Yeah I think we didn’t adjust quickly. When you look at their IPL games, few of the games played here in Hyderabad, it’s always a high-scoring game. It’s a high-scoring venue. So I think the batsmen maybe took it in their mind that ‘okay it’s another high-scoring game’ but it wasn’t,” Dwayne Bravo, the Gujarat Lions all-rounder, conceded in the post-match press conference.

“It was a different surface, the conditions were more challenging for batting and us as batsmen, as international players, we didn’t adapt quickly enough. Instead of trying to get 175-180, we could’ve easily tried to get 135-140 and it could’ve been a winning total,” Bravo added.

The West Indies all-rounder also added that it is important for the Lions to regroup back together as a team before crediting the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers.

“It’s a learning process and definitely, we have to regroup as a team and adjust to all these situations because you can’t keep playing like every game you try to get 180 and 190, that’s not going to be possible. Every condition is different and if we don’t address it as batters quickly, we’re going to find ourselves in these positions again when it’s challenging for batsmen,” said Bravo.

“It was very good bowling. You’ve got to give credit, where credit is due. I think the way Bhuvneshwar bowled his first over. we all know once the condition is in his favour, it’s very difficult to play him. He’s one of the best swing bowlers in the world.”

“I think Ashish backs it up very well. They bowled well to us, they bowled Test match areas. The ball was doing a bit early on so it was very difficult to score. To contain Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum, two of the world’s most dangerous players, definitely, you’ve got to be doing something good.”

“I think it was a very challenging wicket, but at the same time, we’re all professional cricketers so we can’t give any excuses with our batting display. I think we were 20 runs short,” Bravo reckoned.

Watch: Vijay Shankar’s incredible catch to dismiss Dwayne Bravo