Sultans planning for away games: Wasim

LAHORE: Expecting different conditions when they play their away games, Multan Sultans assistant coach and former Test batsman Mohammad Wasim has said that they are making a strategy for their away matches following their successful home campaign in the HBL PSL 9.

“Obviously we will get different conditions now outside Multan. In the previous PSL too we saw high-scoring games there and for that the things are in our mind how to plan for those games,” Wasim told a news conference after Multan conquered Quetta Gladiators by 13 runs in Multan on Sunday. This was the fourth win from Multan from five games they have played.

“We will look how to plan our batting, what will be the approach in the powerplay and in the middle overs and I think we are pretty much there,” Wasim said.

“If you see here (Multan) too low-scoring games have not been held as score was going to 180. Yes, we have to plan 20 to 25 more runs for our away games now. Our batting so far has been fantastic. Openers have scored and middle order is also clicking. It’s a good thing that both local and overseas players have won matches for the team,” said Wasim, also a former chief selector.

Asked why they mostly rely on Reeza Hendricks and Rizwan, Wasim said that they have still managed to win even if Reeza and Rizwan have not scored runs.

“We are ticking all boxes,” Wasim said. “Here conditions were not ideal for the batsmen. We are satisfied with the games at home. Yes for the next challenge you will see a slight change in our strategy keeping in view the conditions there,” he said.

“Today the pitch was slow and spinners were getting assistance and credit also goes to Quetta bowlers who also bowled well in the middle overs but this was in our mind that we will use powerplay so that we could finish it strong in the end. We thought 170 would be a good score on the track and finishing at 180 was a bonus as we added ten more runs,” said Wasim.

Wasim said that fielding is an area of concern and they need to improve it. “Yes, fielding is a zone where we need to improve. We had recovered little bit but you know due to dropped catches we conceded more runs which should not have happened. And we will try to work on this area,” he said. “The credit of picking pacer Mohammad Ali goes to our head coach. It was a huge call from him,’’ Wasim said.