Hodge praises Dravid for his captaincy skills

Rajasthan Royals batsman Brad Hodge on Sunday praised his captain Rahul Dravid for his skills to motivate the players as his side scored their second consecutive win in the IPL in Jaipur.

"He (Dravid) has been very good and motivating his players and also the dressing room atmosphere is very cordial," said Hodge who was adjudged man-of-the-match for his brisk 48 which helped RR beat Kolkata Kinght Riders by 22 runs.

He said that his side had a plan to tackle the strong batting line-up of KKR and it had worked well.

"We had planned to cope with their strong batting line up by introducing spin and medium pace and that helped us to a comfortable victory," he said.

"It wasn't that the visitors could not adjust to the pace of the wicket but we bowled and batted well according to the nature of the wicket," he added.

Asked why S Goswami was sent up the order, Hodge said that it could have been the left-right combination which prompted Dravid to do so.

"I suppose it was the left and right hand combination which must have prompted Dravid to send him up the order but to be fair Goswami has been batting well in the nets," he said.

On selection of playing XI and players like pacer Shaun Tait sitting out, Hodge said that it was all about the right combination for the day.

"The format of this tournament is like this that you can play only four overseas players so sometimes few of have to sit out," he said, adding that Tait may play against Mumbai Indians as he has a good record against them.