We are not focussing on qualifying for play-offs: Moody

Sunrisers Hyderabad are currently at the top of IPL table but their head coach Tom Moody said they were at the moment not focussing on qualifying for the play-offs.

"We are not focusing on qualifying. We are concentrating on improvement. With improvement, we feel the wins will come our way and will get the reward we want, that is to be in the top four. We feel there are areas we can improve. That's what we are striving to do, Moody said.

He was addressing the media at the pre-match conference ahead of Sunrisers' match against Delhi Daredevils here tomorrow.

"They (Daredevils) have got a couple of very exciting young players. No question about that. We are looking forward to the opportunity of playing against them. We will have some specific ideas for certain players like we do with any other team," he said.

 

On pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who missed some recent games owing to a back injury, Moody said his key bowler was progressing well.

"He (Kumar) has had a full bowl today and completed that successfully. We just want to see how he responds tomorrow," the head coach said.

The form of Shikhar Dhawan, who suffered a hit on the elbow in a recent match, is not a cause for worry for the team.

"Not really. He (Dhawan) started the tournament well. He had a nasty knock on the elbow. (He) missed a game, lost a little bit of momentum because of that. But he is a world class player. World class players don't go missing for long," said the Australian.

Replying to a query on Manish Pandey's performance, Moody said the middle order batsman has done well with two half centuries which not many batsmen have got in the tournament.

"I am not going to buy any witch hunting for any flaws in our batting. We have played on challenging wickets, as simple as that. We have done well so far."

Meanwhile, Delhi Daredevils spinner Amit Mishra said his team would like to put its best foot forward in the game against SRH tomorrow.

"Momentum is always there. Obviously, if you win matches, you become mentally a little relaxed and positive. Not this match, every match we are playing from now is important for us. But, this team is talented. It is a positive side" he said.

"When you are playing in such a big tournament, you cannot say there is pressure. Everybody knows what our situation is. We are focusing match by match. We are focusing on tomorrow's match. We are not thinking of the four matches ahead," he said.