Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina fought a lone battle for his side against SRH on Thursday. Pictured: Suresh Raina of Gujarat Lions in action during an IPL match between Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on April 21, 2016.IANS

The Gujarat Lions were hammered by Sunrisers Hyderabad in Rajkot on Thursday. This was their first defeat in four games and this statistics reveal how well the Suresh Raina-led new franchise have started their maiden IPL campaign. 

The Lions lost the match against the Sunrisers by a huge margin of 10 wickets as they could not make any impact on the game. Raina waged a lone battle for his side as he cruised to 75 runs from just 51 balls before getting out to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the last over of their innings.

The Gujarat Lions coach and the former Australian cricketer Brad Hodge feels that his side will learn from this defeat. Hodge agreed that they were not at their best as they were in the previous three games and thus the result was in front of them. 

"We have had a great start to the tournament; we won our first three matches. There are so many good teams in the competition and you are bound to lose one along the way. Yes, we got fairly comprehensively beaten tonight but it is great because there are a few learning curves for us along the way. We have a great side with wonderful match-winners," Hodge was quoted as saying by the official website of the Indian Premier League.

"I don't think they applied themselves as best as they could have. Apart from the captain, who looked in a different class today, the rest of them struggled a bit or played a bit too flamboyantly at times, and we gave away wickets easily."

"That can happen in T20 cricket where you back yourself, and we can adjust that."

Raina has led the Gujarat Lions side quite well right from the start of the IPL 2016 and he has managed to impress his coach. Hodge said that Raina has been able to come out of the shadow of MS Dhoni and certainly stepped up to the occasion in this season of the IPL. 

"I think his strength is that he is a very calm human being. He has been under Dhoni for quite a while and he gets that relaxed persona on the field from him. He never gets too flustered, which is good for his troops out there. He understands the game well and I think he has wonderful knowledge of the game," Hodge added. 

"Of course, this is his first chance to captain in the IPL but he has led the UP team a number of times and has been around a number of good captains. He has certainly stepped up to this role and has come out of the shadows of those captains."