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Sunrisers Hyderabad registered their first win of this Indian Premier League (IPL) with a dominating 65-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders, and the former India captain Sunil Gavaskar acknowledged the improvement in Nitish Kumar Reddy's bowling.
Reddy was named Player of the Match for his match-winning performance against KKR, where he first made 39 runs off 24 balls, then picked up two crucial wickets and finished the match with bowling figures of 17/2. Speaking on Star Sports about Nitish Kumar Reddy's bowling improvement, Gavaskar said, "He is definitely bowling quicker now and has clearly added a bit more pace. You can see better rhythm and flow in his action as well. That often happens when a player is fully fit and stronger physically." Gavaskar stressed that Reddy's bowling is a big positive for the Indian team setup and said, "He (Reddy) was praising his physical trainer and conditioning work, and that is a big positive. He's also getting the ball to bounce a little more, which we saw in the first game as well. That's very encouraging news for India." Asked to bat first, SRH made 226/8 thanks to the valuable contributions from the top order and Reddy. Blessing Muzarabani was the top pick for the KRR as he picked up four wickets. KKR were restricted to 161 runs as the SRH won the match by 64 runs. Cameron Green, who has been picked by the KKR for Rs 25.20 crore, failed to score again and lost his wicket after being involved in a horrible run-out with Angkrish Raghuvanshi. Gavaskar also spoke about KKR's team combination and Green's role in the side. "KKR will need to think about their combination if Cameron Green is not going to bowl. If he isn't contributing with the ball, then they might have to consider bringing in another specialist batter. We know he has scored a hundred in the IPL and that he can bat well, but his form hasn't been great recently. Yes, he scored a hundred in a red-ball game in Australia not long ago, but this is where the team needs to look closely at the numbers," he said. Gavaskar believes that the bigger concern for the KKR side is their batters at the number five and six. "Green at No. 4 is fine, but the bigger concern seems to be the No. 5 and No. 6 positions, where they appear to be struggling a bit," he concluded. (ANI)
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