Follow UsSunrisers Hyderabad got their first rude shock of the IPL 2024 when Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers restricted them to a total of 171 runs while chasing 207 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on April 25 (Thursday).
Openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma - the duo who have been the architect of most of Sunrisers’ swashbuckling scores – failed to muster any momentum at the top and that had a cascading effect on the side in the powerplay and middle overs.
Coach Daniel Vettori, however, is not fussed by the outcome and stated that in the IPL, there’s never been any easy games and expecting the same set of batters to come off every game is not logical.
"Obviously we were confident because of the scores we were able to put up. We thought that 206 was a good score, there was a real confidence in the group because of past performances,” Vettori said in the post-match press conference.
"We also know that it's been set up by the openers and today they had an off day and that's cricket and you have off days. We don't expect them to perform 14 games and unfortunately, we didn't get the support in the middle stages. It's a tough loss but we understand that every team in the IPL can beat every team, there are no easy games at all."
So far, Hyderabad has proven to be a batting paradise, but the wicket seemed to be holding up a bit in the first innings. Hence, was there a need for someone to anchor the innings throughout? Vettori doesn’t think so.
"The guys who came off all said that it was a surface that you could score on. Anchor roles when you are chasing 207 is hard to do. Obviously need to be aggressive, 10 an over means you need two boundaries so for someone to settle in and play an anchor role is a little bit tricky but it's certainly something we will look at.
"We have been successful setting totals and now we have to look at our way of chasing. We come up against a really good team in Chennai so I suppose for us is removing ourselves from this game and understanding that the Chepauk wicket could be different and we may have to go about it in a different manner. I still think on this ground, on these surfaces we have to take the game on."
Returning to the side after being dropped for the Delhi game, Jaydav Unadkat was at the top of his game last night, grabbing three wickets in exchange of just 30 runs. The former New Zealand skipper stated that Unadkat’s ability to bowl slow bouncers is a very effective weapon in Hyderabad, and the team didn’t want to miss out on that.
"I think when the surface suits him and to be fair to him he probably gets more bounce and has the ability to stop the ball on the wicket than most. Because he almost bowls a top spinner with those slow ball bouncers, so he is really good when he has a set plan. Obviously we left him out in the last game because we thought the surface wasn't quite conducive to him in Delhi but this ground (Hyderabad) he has had three very good performances for us,” Vettori added.