EXCLUSIVE
Follow UsSunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) succumbed to their eighth loss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season and are out of contention for a place in the playoffs.
After a close loss in the previous match, PBKS made a host of changes, which included getting back Ravi Bishnoi into the XI, in place of Adil Rashid. Former England batsman Mark Butcher says that it was a good move on the surface in Sharjah. Bishnoi picked up three wickets and gave away just 24 runs in a spell, in which he accounted for the wickets of Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey and Abdul Samad.
“Bishnoi was interesting. They went for a more Rashid Khan sort of leg-spinner – quicker through the air, flatter, has balls turning back into the right-handers a bit more than the big leg-break that Adil Rashid bowls. On that surface, it was a perfect choice. Needed somebody to push it through, not let the batters to get underneath you and hit you out of the park and he did that brilliantly,” Butcher said on Cricket.com’s Man vs Machine.
Butcher also spoke highly of Mohammed Shami, who finished with impressive figures of 2 for 14.
“He is a quality bowler. If you can run up and hit a decent length and he tends to be fuller than most, attacking the stumps. On a pitch where you’re entirely sure if the ball is going to come on to the bat, whether it’s going to grip or not, he’s going to cause you problems. He is high class. You get him on a deck like that, he is going to be very difficult to repel in the early overs, unless you are full of confidence and you’re very powerful,” Butcher said of Shami.
Jason Holder with his all-round performance nearly won it for SRH but did not get any sort of support from anyone else.
“On a slow, sort of tacky and a tired pitch you get a low first innings score. You get two teams who are better at losing than winning and it was all great ingredients for drama at the backend. Sunrisers Hyderabad without Jason Holder would have lost the game by many a mile. It was a stunning performance from the former West Indies captain. Even he couldn’t drag them over the line. The young Aussie from Tassie (Tasmania, Nathan Ellis) holding his nerves from the last over. Punjab Kings are just about still alive,” Butcher said reflecting on the game.
"You get a performance like Holder’s - three-for and 47 off 29 – chasing 126 and you still don’t go over the line, you’ve got some big problems. It’s been tough."
"You can’t get a run out of your overseas top-order players, the rest of the batting line-up looks iffy at best. Wriddhiman Saha, who I gave a bit of stick to, was well-meaning – if he is you’re standard opener for your team, you’re probably not going to win many games because he is not able to get you off to a flying start. They needed that when the ball was hard and new with the field was up on that pitch. Failures again for Warner and Williamson. They’re in a real mess," he added.
With this win, PBKS have moved to fifth place with eight points from 10 matches. They take on Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (September 28) next and would look to keep their hopes alive with a win over the defending champions.