IPL 2024: “Nitish Kumar’s batting has been unconventional” says Sunrisers teammate Abdul Samad

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Abdul Samad on Tuesday said that in the ongoing IPL season, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s batting isn’t as conventional as it was last season.

Nitish starred with 64 (37b, 4×4, 5×6), his maiden IPL fifty, in Sunrisers’ two-run win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) here.

“Last year, Nitish was not batting like this. Last year, he used to play conventional shots. This time, he has become completely different.

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“I think he has practiced very well. And he had a very good impact in our practice matches as well. So, everyone was very impressed with him. That’s why we are backing him. I think he has been promoted (from No. 6 to No. 4) today (on Tuesday) to carry the confidence of the last game (vs. Chennai Super Kings). And everyone had confidence in him that he will deliver today (on Tuesday),” Samad said at the post-match press conference.

The two sixes that Kings’ Ashutosh Sharma hit in the last over, with 29 needed to win, were palmed over the boundary by the fielders. Samad said that it wouldn’t have been a close match, had those catches been taken.

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“We thought the match was a bit close because we missed two catches. Otherwise, we would have won the match by 15 runs or so.”

He acknowledged the openers’ (Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’s) contribution in consistently getting Sunrisers off to a flying start. “When you get a start of 70-80 runs in the Powerplay, then it becomes easy for you. So, that is helping us a lot in winning the match.”