Sunrisers find solace in their old formula

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s decision-making think-tank had the likes of Simon Katich, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brian Lara, Dale Steyn, and Tom Moody on a ping away to shell out suggestions during the mega auction of 2022. The franchise even published a photo of a group session organized to discuss ideas with some of the biggest minds in the sport. None of these seemed anything more than an extension of a brief interlude that had engulfed the 2016 Champions in the last two seasons in darkness but rather seemed like a union of sorts to turn the tide. 

When Katich resigned from the role of head coach, citing the non-execution of the decided plans in the auction, it was clear that something wrong was brewing internally. Further, their strategy gave in to the idea. Their retention was not something any franchise would have ideally done - letting go of Rashid Khan to give the first card to Kane Williamson, retaining Abdul Samad and Umran Malik purely on potential, whereas not managing David Warner properly had to be taken with a pinch of salt. 

It was further exacerbated after March 26. When they lost the first two games to start the IPL 2022 in a fashion that never seemed so SRH, the commentary was around the mess-ups more than the way forward. Messing up a straightforward chase against LSG after their bowlers buckled up against Rajasthan Royals seemed a conundrum of their own. “How could they make a comeback from here?” many asked and all of them made sense.

As the 21st game has come to wind, the narrative, however, has taken a flip for the franchise. Not only have they come back to winning ways by stamping their authority in the last two games, but they have also done it in a fashion that has traditional SRH written all over it. 

Trample the opposition by tidy overs, don’t let them score enough runs in the middle and death, and anchor your way through to win the encounter - it had been a mantra for the side in the season preceding 2020, and thanks to a patch of bowlers - often unheralded but did their job to perfection - they managed to stay ahead of the curve, even though that came at the expense of looking ugly at times.

Against CSK, it was Washington Sundar who played the job that Rashid Khan used to do for them in their prime. By not letting them score enough runs in the middle overs, Sundar made the job of the pacers easier. SRH debutant Marco Jansen and T Natarajan had the wood over the batters to ensure that the chapter of CSK’s insane dominance over the franchise was not to be repeated on that day. But this could still have been down to CSK’s inability to break the shackle then but repeating the same template against Gujarat Titans needed a lot of effort, which actually established the seriousness of the business. 

Umran Malik, who has been hailed for his pace - and naturally so - hasn’t really hit the straps. He still clocks the 150kphs with elan, but somehow, that hasn’t been backed with wicket-taking abilities. He has conceded runs at almost 10 runs per over in every single game, but the pressure he mounted on the batters left a lot of things to chance. In a high-stake situation, it is the risk that reaps the rewards and SRH understood that Malik’s performance had a classic undertone of forcing others to make errors. 

Batting-wise, the last two games also had eerie similarities with the last two year’s efforts. Before tonight’s encounter, this season, they had scored at a run rate of 5.1 runs in the powerplay and had balls per boundary ratio of 10.8, the worst among all the teams, Kane Williamson had played 63 deliveries across three innings and had a dot ball percentage of 53.9, which is the most by a batter with a minimum of 50 deliveries. He had to don the role of an anchor while being the anchor he needed to be, and that impact sealed the deal tonight. The not-so-good target helped of course but it was backed by a careful execution of plans - a trait often undersubscribed in the larger scheme of things. 

Was this enough to turn the tide completely? That would be too premature to suggest but one thing is for sure SRH haven’t escaped a loss but rather have done things in the way they should. In T20 cricket, it is tough to dispatch a team from its perch if they stick to their guns and do what has historically worked for them and execute them in a fashion unbeknownst to the outside world. And that conscious change in paradigm has opened up the possibilities for a sustainable period of success.