There are lot of positives, says Simon Helmot

Ishan Kishan played a very mature innings. He certainly held the innings together for us, said Simon Helmot, assistant coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: “I think there are a number of positives today. Ishan Kishan played a very mature innings. He certainly held the innings together for us,” said Simon Helmot, assistant coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad which shocked Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Lucknow on Friday night.

“Obviously, our batters assessed the wicket and we felt it was a very nice wicket to bat on and a large score was going to be required. So, we maintained that aggressive approach but it was still important to have a batter in at the very end to ensure that we could capitalise on those last few overs. So, I think as a batting unit, we maintained the course,” Helmot said in the post-match briefing.

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“I think we’ll always be aggressive and always be positive but we’ll always try to be smart as well and understand that not all surfaces play the same way. And so, a score of 170 or 180 might be a match-winning score. So, we’ve never sought to try and make over 200 every innings but if we believe that the surface is good enough and our batters can get some partnerships together, then you can get those match-winning scores,” Helmot explained.

“I thought Pat Cummins set the tone beautifully at the beginning, was a little unlucky not to get a wicket early and then I think maybe the Eshan Malinga over in the middle there and then the run-out was certainly very helpful in us being able to achieve what we needed to do as far as restricting them,” he said.

“Weren’t as clinical in the field today. I think we could have been a bit cleaner in the field but like I said, the highlight was the run-out and then obviously getting 10 wickets was a great effort,” he said.

“Opposition bowling groups have worked very hard in studying us and working out ways in which they’ll bowl to us to try and restrict us. But I suppose it’s nice to get a couple of wins on the bounce and we did play very well back at home when there was a washout,” Helmot said.

“We had three good efforts the last three games and we really would like to finish off our final game against KKR in Delhi and try and finish in the top half of the table,” he said.