Pune coach Marsh blames batsmen for team’s poor performance

Disappointed with Pune Warriors' poor batting effort in the IPL loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, coach Geoff Marsh said no team can expect to win a match without putting enough runs on the board.

Marsh blamed the batsmen for Pune’s poor run in IPL4 © Getty Images

Mumbai: May 19, 2011

Disappointed with Pune Warriors’ poor batting effort in the IPL loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, coach Geoff Marsh said no team can expect to win a match without putting enough runs on the board. Sent into bat, the Pune Warriors were restricted to 118 for seven by Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL match at the D Y Patil Stadium last night and Marsh said the batting was simply disappointing.

“The batting was disappointing. You cannot win a game after scoring 118. We lost early wickets. The boys are also disappointed. We feel for the spectators too, it was a near full house,” said the former Australian cricketer after his team suffered a seven-wicket defeat.

Marsh said it was difficult to recover after losing early wickets. “We lost early wickets, have been losing 4-5 wickets early. When you lose wickets you are under pressure. Their bowlers also bowled well,” he said.

But Marsh defended team captain Yuvraj Singh’s decision to bat at number six. “He usually bats at no. 4. He plays to a plan and it did not succeed,” he said.

“We have no excuses. We have not played good cricket (through the tournament). Our bowling unit has been consistent but our batting group has been inconsistent and has struggled to score runs,” he explained.

Marsh said Robin Uthappa has not got runs irrespective of whether he bats higher up or lower down the order. “When you are not scoring runs you can bat anywhere. He should be a good enough player to get runs anywhere,” he said. “We have all been trying very hard, may be too hard.”

Asked about the fitness of Sourav Ganguly to play in the Twenty20 format at the age of 39, Marsh said the left handed stalwart has been working very hard. “He’s fine (fitness-wise). He was quite sharp in the field and also took a catch,” he said.

On the plus side, Marsh said the bowlers had done a very good job. “Our bowling group was very consistent barring a couple of games. Rahul Sharma had a fantastic IPL. The batsmen have been disappointing as a group,” he explained. 

© PTI