Mumbai: Deccan Chargers coach Darren Lehmann was pretty blunt in his assessment of his side's chances in the rest of the tournament after the defeat against the Mumbai Indians. Here's more from his interaction with the media.
Excerpts
On Deccan Chargers’ chances of reaching the semi-finals
We’ve got to get eight wins [in order to reach the semis] so we need to win five from six. We really need to get a move on, that we know.
On Deccan fans hoping for a change of fortune in Nagpur
So do I, I hope Nagpur does change our fortunes. Correct.
On the bowlers conceding too many runs
I thought we bowled well in patches. We dropped too many catches, fielded poorly again and just left too much for the batsmen to do. Our batting was disgraceful.
On the total of 178 being too much to chase
I thought it was going to be a tough total [to chase]. I thought it was more of a 140-150 wicket, tops. They got away with a few things, [Ambati] Rayudu played really well, [Saurabh] Tiwary had a bit of luck we dropped the catch, dropped him twice really … that hurt. They probably got 30 too many for us to chase but I still think that we should have got closer than we did obviously, so that was disappointing.
On the reasons for the defeat
I think it has been all things. Our batting has been really disappointing, you don’t have to be a smarty to work that out. We have been really disappointing with the bat, but also at stages with the ball and at stages in the field. We just haven’t clicked in any department altogether for a while now. So there are things that we need to look at and work hard on. The blokes have been working hard on the training track, it is just the case of not putting it together when the big moments come along. So the batters have to give a good account of themselves as do the bowlers and that’s all I can ask for as a coach. Hopefully they respond quickly because if they don’t - if we don’t - then we certainly will be struggling to make the final.
On Deccan’s bowling at the death
Yeah, they got too many runs. We have certainly leaked a few runs in the last two or three overs of each game, to be perfectly honest. So we are trying different things and trying to address that. At the moment it is not working so hopefully that will change by the next game, or it has to change, because if it doesn’t, then we are out of the tournament.
On Gilchrist coming out with a runner
We thought about it but obviously he is such a strong player for us at the top of the order […] You don’t need runners with the field up […] so it was a gamble we had to take. At the end of the innings it was not going to be a matter what start we got with the new ball if we get a flier. To their credit we started reasonably well but then we lost wickets in clumps again, so we lost three [wickets] in three overs and then two in another two overs and three or four at the end.
On not having clarity about the batting order and team composition
We are trying lots of things obviously because our batting hasn’t clicked. I mean I think I said yesterday that we have only had a highest score of 50. So that makes it hard for batting to click. We are just trying to get the right combination at the moment. It hasn’t worked, it has probably only worked in one game in Chennai and that’s probably the only time. So again you just have to keep trying things and hopefully they come off. We just have to wait and see what we come up with in the next game. Obviously we have a few injury concerns now and we just have to see how we go.
On the Indian players’ indifferent form being one of the reasons for Deccan’s poor performance
You could say that a little bit. The Indian players have been a little bit disappointing for us. We know that as a side. But also the overseas [players] have been disappointing as well. So as a team we don’t really say that it is four overseas or seven Indians. It’s a team and as a team we are not doing the right thing. So for us, we have to get better at that very, very quickly.
On the difficulty batting against a bowler like Lasith Malinga
Malinga, oh he is a class bowler isn’t he? Simple fact. He can bowl a ball at 150 [kmph] and bowl one at 120 [kmph] with the same action so that’s difficult to play. The wicket certainly suited him. I’d like to see a nice, hard, bouncy track - to face him [that kind of track] would be a lot better but that’s what we got and that’s what we dealt with him.
On the team’s plans for the Mumbai batsmen especially Sachin Tendulkar
No, we just bowled too wide. If we bowled him straight, we thought it was the right plan. Sachin always knocks it around, he doesn’t go hard in the first couple of overs, he tries to stay in. So we thought if we got rid of a couple of bowlers that way, I think that’s the right plan for Mumbai. You bowled a couple of part-timers, [the batsmen] didn’t go hard [at them] - they go hard at the end so you have got to have the bowlers bowl at the end for them and that went [for] 12 [with] two wides and a misfield in that as well. So [it] could have only been six or seven and it’s a win for you.
On Laxman’s role
Well he has played the first four games, he got injured obviously then he has had got a couple of games off. But he came back in tonight and he got run out tonight, so you can’t do much about that. For us he is a class player and we are hoping he clicks soon for us. So we expect him to do well as we do every other player.
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