Follow UsThe Sunrisers Hyderabad began the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on a superb note, scoring 286/6—the second-highest total in the tournament's history. However, after winning that game by 44 runs, the SRH train derailed a bit. They lost first against the Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets, and yesterday, March 30, their batting succumbed against the Delhi Capitals, and they lost the game by seven wickets.
Amidst the losses, SRH’s batting approach has been questioned where the batters are going hard against the bowlers from the first ball itself. Against DC, they were 37/4 at one stage as a result of that. However, coach Daniel Vettori said after the game that no such changes would be made to temper SRH’s batting tempo.
“There's no conversations around that [tempering down the aggression while batting]," Vettori said. "We definitely want to play an aggressive brand. If you look at our top three, that's how they play. They normally set the tone for the rest of us.
“Abhishek was unlucky tonight, Ishan and Travis on a different day may have hit those balls for six. We understand when we play this way, there may be failure but hopefully we can come to the party and perform more often than not.”
Vettori also wasn’t perturbed by losing two games on the trot and felt that it’s a a part and parcel of such a long competition.
“If you look at the course of the 18 IPL seasons, there's been very few teams that haven't lost two games in a row," the former Kiwi spinner said.
"Particularly early in the season when teams are learning their combinations, first year after a big auction. We don't want to be in this position, like any team, but we understand every time we play, we come up against a very good team, well-planned teams and highly talented players.
"There's no reason why we can't just turn up and win, we've got to perform, that's the challenge for us after a very good first performance and continue in the style we like. How we challenge ourselves to do it consistently [is important].”
Vettori also praised the leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari from UP, who made his IPL debut yesterday and picked three wickets.
“He was fantastic," Vettori said of the rookie leg-spinner.
"Right from the first day he came in we knew that he was a talent, trying to fit him in the team was one of the conversations early on. For him to give us the domestic leg-spin option, to take three big wickets tonight, and to continue challenging the batsmen is very promising for us going forward.”
SRH will now face KKR on April 3 in Kolkata, where they will be looking to overturn their fortunes.