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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Inconsistent batting has let us down, says Geoff Marsh

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OUR CORRESPONDENT Published 19.05.11, 12:00 AM

Mumbai: Out of the play-offs race, the main objective of the Pune Warriors now is to play party poopers for the other teams, said coach Geoff Marsh, on the eve of their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The clash is crucial for the Knights, as a win will almost assure them of a play-off berth and that is where Marsh hopes to hit them.

Blaming the team’s inconsistent batting display throughout IPL-IV, Marsh said: “We can’t make the final, which is disappointing… All we can do now is stop the other teams from getting there. We want to finish in the best possible way we can, with two wins.

“The inconsistency in our batting department has been disappointing… I think on almost five occasions, we have been four down for 40 runs. It’s very hard to win a game from there, no matter how well the bowlers bowl,” he added.

He, however, partly blamed injuries as the thorn in the Warriors’ flesh. “We have good players. But we have been a little bit unlucky with injuries. We lost some key players at the wrong times,” the Australian said.

Marsh pointed out that the Warriors had lost the services of seamer Ashish Nehra and all-rounder Angelo Mathews through injuries even before the tournament began. And adding Graeme Smith and Tim Paine, who were ruled out during the tournament, he said that almost all of these players would have been part of the playing XI.

“We did not have Ashish Nehra and Mathews from the start. Callum Ferguson came late (after playing for Australia). We lost Mathews too… We lost (Graeme) Smith. We also lost (Tim) Paine. They were three of our batters who would have been in the top six,” he said.

But he made it clear that he didn’t want to give excuses for the team’s poor show. “No excuses, as we have good players in there, but have not scored enough runs.”

The coach also stressed on the importance of converting starts into bigger innings for achieving success.

“Hopefully, Yuvraj can go in there and turn his 30s into 60-plus tomorrow (Thursday) and Jesse Ryder can go on and convert those starts into big scores… Like (Adam) Gilchrist, like Shaun (Marsh), like (Sachin) Tendulkar...”

Citing the Chennai Super Kings as an example, Marsh said: “Teams like Chennai are on top because guys like (Michael) Hussey and others are getting not 30s and 40s, but 70s and 80s. That’s what we have failed to do.”

Marsh had special words of praise for leg-spinner Rahul Sharma terming him as the find of the tournament from his team.

“I think there’s no doubt that (Rahul) Sharma has been absolutely fantastic. He’s improved over the last one year and he’s been a real find for Indian cricket,” he said.

He also wanted Robin Uthappa to learn from Yurvaj’s approach and bat sensibly. “Robin needs to relax a bit… He probably needs to give himself a little more time (before going after the bowlers). When Yuvraj goes in, he plays nice and straight for a couple of overs and then he becomes a very dangerous player,” he said.

Asked about Sourav Ganguly’s appearance for the Warriors against his former team, on Thursday, Marsh said that the former India captain was very excited about the game.

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