SRH played some pretty good cricket for 35 overs against RCB: Bayliss

Reflecting o the six-run defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) coach Trevor Bayliss said that his team played good cricket for 35 of the 40 overs. He reckons SRH conceded a few more runs than they would have liked to and with the bat, it did not help them that they lost wickets in a hurry in the last 3-4 overs.

"Probably went for a bit too many in the last couple of bowling overs. Then obviously in the last three or four overs... the over where we lost three wickets, was obviously some poor cricket. Some poor decision-making," Bayliss said at the post-match press conference.

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"We played some pretty good cricket for 35 overs. But against such good teams, you need to put together 40 good overs," the SRH coach added.

SRH skipper David Warner seemed to be animated when Harshal Patel was not taken off after he bowled a second waist hight no-ball. However, Bayliss believes that the umpires got it right as the first one was not bowled at the batsman's body. 

"He (Warner) was a little animated because we weren't playing very good cricket and we lost," Bayliss said referring to Warner, who was gesturing in the team dugout in Wednesday night's game at the M A Chidambaram stadium."

"I think the umpires got it right. There was a bit of conjecture over obviously the second high no-ball, but the first one was not directed at the batter's body, so that wasn't a warning. So I think the umpires got that one right," The Australian said

Bayliss was not happy with SRH batsmen's poor shot selection. While acknowledging that RCB bowled well, he said that his team should have countered the pressure by playing proper cricketing shots. 

"Obviously, when you keep a team down to under 150, you would like to think you are going to win more times than you lose. But our batting in that last third of the match was fairly poor," he said

"There was some good bowling, obviously. But we should have countered the pressure by playing some good strong cricket shots and taking the ones and twos and putting the pressure back on the opposition," he further added.

Bayliss further said, "We tried to get the game done and over within a short space of time. In T20 cricket, you have always got a little bit more time than you really think. If you look at the end result, we lost by six or seven runs. If we hadn't lost out better batters in that over, where we lost three wickets, it might have been a different story."

West Indies fast bowler Jason Holder was brought into the XI ahead of Mohammad Nabi for this game. Bayliss explained that Nabi was still recovering from the hit he suffered during the team's first game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).  "Nabi, when he got hit the other day in the first match, he's feeling the effects of that hit for a couple of days after that. So he was deemed unfit. He had a bit of a headache and a heavy head."

"That allowed us to play Jason, and from the pace-bowling point of view he gave us a point of difference with a little bit of height and bounce," The World Cup-winning coach said.

Speaking on when Kane Williamson will be available for selection, Bayliss said, "Kane Williamson is out having a bit of a run now. He trained on one of the days - we had two days' practice before this game and he practiced on one of those days so he's coming along."

SRH will look to get their first win of IPL 2021 when they take on Mumbai Indians (MI) in their next match on Saturday (April 17)