1 week Ago By Mid-day
Another run feast is on the cards when the take on the cock-a-hoop Royal Challengers Bengaluru on a red soil square at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday afternoon. “We are getting a red soil wicket, I think,” Gujarat’s spin bowling coach Ashish Kapoor said in reply to a mid-day question about the track at the pre-match interaction on Saturday. ADVERTISEMENT “This year we wanted to play on black soil,” Kapoor revealed.
He added that their match against Punjab was played on a red soil wicket. “We scored 199 but lost that match,” he said. Kapoor sidestepped a question when asked if, as hosts, they get to decide which pitch to use.
He diverted that question to the media manager, who pointed out that the question should be directed to the BCCI. The Bengaluru team is coming into this match after a thumping win over the high-riding Sunrisers Hyderabad. They must be nursing a thin chance of qualifying for the play-offs.
When mid-day asked their in-form batsman Rajat Patidar if they talked about the return by the after earlier losses, “We discussed that [Mumbai rallying], but we don’t compare,” Patidar concurred. He said that the team was focusing on one match at a time. “We believe that we can turn around the points table,” he reiterated.
The worry for Gujarat is their bowling. In the absence of injured Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma have not been so effective. “Shami is a world-class performer, anybody will miss him, those four overs will ma.
