Gujarat Titans (GT) batting coach and legendary Australian opener Matthew Hayden was pleased with his team’s performance against the Rajasthan Royals on May 9 in Jaipur, as they defeated RR by 77 runs, their biggest ever win in the IPL.
GT was asked to bat first, and thanks to Sai Sudharsan’s 55, Shubman Gill’s 84, and 37* by Washington Sundar, the team posted 229/4 in 20 overs. In response, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi got off to a flier, scoring 36 in 16 balls, before being dismissed by Mohammed Siraj.
The rest of the RR batting collapsed as Rashid Khan took four wickets and was bundled out for 152 runs, losing the game by 77 runs.
Similar to Pat Cummins, Matthew Hayden is also quite impressed with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the Royals' opener. However, the former Australian batsman may have pointed out some shortcomings in the young player's gameplay.
According to Hayden, having a batsman who can go big and go deep is crucial when a team is pursuing a target in excess of 220. Players who play games of 10-ball 30 are not as important.
“Well, tonight was a good example, right, of an exciting young talent in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He batted and got 30 runs at a strike rate of 300. But when you're chasing 220-odd, you need to bat longer and deeper," Hayden told reporters in the post-match press conference.
The top three players on the GT team, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, and Jos Buttler, were then saved by Hayden, who claimed that his team excels at having hitters who can play according to the occasion and produce a strike rate of 150 every day of the week.
“So, the advantage that we have is that we get players, like the top three that you mentioned, who are striking at 150. Let me tell you, as a batter, that it's really hard, and they're doing it for a long period of time; they're constantly getting into the back half of the game, not just batting inside the power play.
They're going right through with their fitness and their ability to be able to really play Test match-type cricket and ODI cricket in particular,” he added.
Hayden was open enough to acknowledge that his team does well in games where the par score is between 160 and 180 runs, but he was pleased to see how GT altered their strategy when facing an X-factor team like the Royals.
"So, I love the fact that we're going about constructing innings. Tonight, where we're setting a target, which is a different challenge for us, we've had a number of totals in that sort of 160 range, which I would back our batting to get through any day of the week, so it was nice tonight to have that bit of a challenge against an X-factor team like Rajasthan Royals, and to come out on top was really important for us," said Hayden.
GT will next host Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad on May 12, while RR will again have a break before clashing with Delhi Capitals in Delhi on May 17.
