Things didn’t quite go according to plan for the Sunrisers Hyderabad as they began their campaign with a loss against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It was a run fest wherein the RCB batsmen dealt severe blows on the Sunrisers’ bowlers. They posted a mammoth 200-plus score which turned out to be too many to chase for the Sunrisers batsmen. Though the team is coming off a loss and set to play their first game at home, coach Tom Moody was confident of a good show against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday. “Even though we lost our first game, we are going into this first game at home with a lot of confidence,” Moody said. “We play KKR next and we know they are a strong team and they have shown that over time. It is going to be a tough contest. Every side in the competition is well balanced and there isn’t a so called easy game. We need to play our best cricket to walk away with winning points tomorrow.” The Sunrisers did manage to score 180 with David Warner leading from the front, scoring a breezy half century. But much has been spoken about the loss of form of his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan has not had the best of runs for the national side and in the first game for the Sunrisers could manage just 8. Moody though had full faith in Dhawan’s abilities and believed a big score would come knocking very soon. “Shikhar is keen for runs like any batsman would be. He has been working hard and hitting the ball well in the nets. I am very confident that it is just a matter of time that he converts that hard work into a match-winning score for us. Shikhar is one person, you can guarantee, who is not shy of hard work. He has done the hard yards and I am sure that big scores are round the corner.” There are injury concerns too for the home team after Ashish Nehra was ruled out for the next two games due to a groin injury he sustained during the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Moody was happy with the available backups in the squad. “With Ashish Nehra being injured, a bowler of that kind of quality is going to have an impact on any side. Fortunately, with our strategy and the make of our side this year, we were very conscious that we had strong support behind our bowling. With Barinder Sran and Abhimanyu Mithun, we have got capable and talented back up pace bowlers. We feel very confident with the potential replacement.” On the other side, Kolkata Knight Riders too are coming off a loss against the Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens. They scored 187 but had to succumb to a Rohit Sharma show. Captain Gautam Gambhir though reiterated the fact that it was just a minor blip and had full faith in his side to defend such a total in the future. “We have played only two games and we have batted really well especially putting up 187 at the Eden Gardens. No complaints,” Gambhir said. “Previous game was one of those days where we couldn’t defend 187 but I can assure you that if we can put 187 on any other track, most likely we will end up defending it. It is still early in the competition and hopefully we can continue the same way. If we can put that kind of runs on the board, we will most likely end up winning games.”

In other news Sunil Narine is back in the KKR squad and was seen bowling at the nets. Gambhir’s go-to bowler looked in good spirits as he chatted with a few of his teammates and went about his bowling routine with ease. Would there be a case of Narine and Brad Hogg bowling in tandem against Sunrisers? “We haven’t thought about it, we will sit down tomorrow and see how it goes. It is an option that any captain would want to have especially playing Hogg and Sunil together. In that case you have atleast eight overs of quality and attacking bowling where you can take wickets. It is a great option to have.”