CHENNAI: Hyderabad skipper CV Milind hoped to see his team correct mistakes from last week's draw against Punjab in the Ranji Trophy, when they take on Chhattisgarh in Elite Group B at the Gymkhana Ground from Monday. Milind and Co had to settle for a point after conceding the first innings lead to Punjab. Monday’s match, which was scheduled to be played at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur, was moved to the Gymkhana in Secunderabad due to National Green Tribunal's (NGT) order restraining sporting activities over usage of groundwater. However, a one-time exception was given to host India women's T20I series vs Zimbabwe in October, provided that the Chhattisgarh Cricket Sangh deposited Rs 20 lakh to the Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board.
The skipper spoke on what the team learnt from their draw against Punjab. Asked to bowl first, the hosts were undone by a 116-run partnership in the 10th-wicket between Punjab batter Salil Arora and veteran pacer Umesh Yadav. Then, in Hyderabad’s only innings, they were caught off-guard by part-timer Vihaan Malhotra, who scalped four wickets. “I think these two aspects are where we could have done better: containing that last partnership and being a bit calmer when we were four or five down,” he told this daily ahead of the fourth round clash.
Another key thing he felt needed to change in the near future is how set batters should convert their scores. In last week's drawn match, three set batters – Abhirath Reddy, Rahul Radesh and K Himateja were dismissed on 97, 86 and 81 respectively. “It is a long campaign, and there will be moments like these where we can learn from. Probably one of the three could have got a big hundred till we got the lead. Three batters getting set and getting out after getting set is where we can get better at. They can take it a bit closer to where we want to go,” he said.
But his men have a chance to correct these shortcomings against Chhattisgarh, a familiar opponent. When they played each other last season, Hyderabad notched 631 and took three points via first innings lead. But this season, Chhattisgarh don't seem to be pushovers. They are coming into this match on the back of an innings win against Andhra in Mulapadu. “I didn't play that game last year against Chhattisgarh because I was injured. But the rest of the team, I'm sure they have an idea. But we start from scratch once the first ball is bowled. The situations are the same; you have to just respond better. We will try to do a better job than what we did in the Punjab game, try to put pressure on them as a team and keep bowling in the right areas and bat well. It's going to be pretty much simple — just follow what we've been doing from the start of the campaign,” Milind signed off.