Sunrisers Hyderabad batting coach Hemang Badani believes the four-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday will give a lot of belief and confidence to player like Abdul Samad, who took the 2016 champions over the line with a six on free-hit.
In chasing 215, Abhishek Sharma top-scored with 55, while Rahul Tripathi was fine in 47. Followed by cameos of 26 and 25 from Heinrich Klassen and Glenn Phillips, Samad hit a six on a free-hit delivery off Sandeep Sharma’s head to give the team a nail-biting victory in a run-fest.
"It's a great win, because it gives us momentum. It will obviously give us confidence. It will obviously give a lot of belief for guys like Samad, because Samad would have felt that he missed out a couple of times."
"To have done it here, the next time he comes in to bat, the next time he's in a situation like this, he'll be a lot more different to what he was in the past," said Badani in the post-match press conference.
Samad had been unable to take Hyderabad over the line in final over chases against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders earlier in the season. But on Sunday, a stroke of luck through a no-ball propelled him to be the hero in Hyderabad’s chase, ending unbeaten on 17 off just 7 balls.
Badani credited Samad for being strong and taking the responsibility on himself post the defeat to Kolkata, which in turn propelled him to finish off the chase against Rajasthan."Let me start off by saying I have to give full marks to Samad, because he was the first one to come up to me after the previous game and said, 'I should have finished the game'.
He took ownership of it, and said with nine off six balls, more often than not, batters in the middle would finish games for their side.""He didn't finish it and he was a little unhappy about it. He had a similar instance with the game against Mumbai (Indians); that again was a game that he felt he could have finished.
And he was hurting, to be honest. He was hurting.""He was like, 'I've been around with SRH, this is my third (fourth) year, I'm a retained player and I really want to make it count. I really want to try and show them that I am worth your time and I am worth the investment.'
I think he's ensured that he's stayed strong," he concluded.Now at ninth place in the points table with eight points and keeping their slim hopes of making the playoffs alive, Hyderabad’s next match in IPL 2023 will be against Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday afternoon.