Could have chased 200: Dwayne Smith

Gujarat Lions registered a resounding win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Rajkot on Sunday. Having been set a target of 180, the Lions chased it down with 3 balls to spare and 6 wickets in hand. Opener Dwayne Smith, who played his first game of the season, said his team could have chased down the target had it been in excess of 200 as well.

Smith gave a flying start to the Lions in the run chase with a 20-ball 32. “[If] we would have been set 200, we could have made 200 as well,” Smith said after Lions defeated RCB by 6 wickets. “Having said that, we still have to bat properly, and [I am] glad that we did that to get over the line,” he added.

Smith was drafted in the side in place of Dale Steyn as skipper Suresh Raina wanted to go with an extra batsman. The trick worked for the home side and the West Indian admitted the fact that it was the lack of that extra batsman in the side that they missed in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. “We have to play on how the pitch was playing. The extra batsman was the way to go and I think we missed that in the last game. It’s good to see that we’ve got back to winning ways,”

He also complimented the way Brendon McCullum led the counter-attack right after Smith’s dismissal, hitting 20 runs in next 4 balls. “It was just natural. Myself and Baz [McCullum] have played for long time,” Smith said. “We know each other. We complement each other well.”

On the other hand, RCB’s bowler Tabraiz Shamsi said that the score of 180 was above par and it was the bowling that let them down. “Had we won the game, nobody would have questioned our decision to bat first,” Shamsi said.

“We couldn’t bowl well to pull off a victory. Virat [Kohli] is one of the best in the world. He knows what he is doing and if a batsman like him bats through the 20 overs, we were sure to get somewhere close to a decent total on board. We actually thought we had got a little more than par on that ground and on the pitch,” added the chinaman bowler.

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