We looked like a team that was not excited to win a game of cricket: Markram

Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered the great disappointment of losing to Delhi Capitals after restricting them to a mere 144 runs. In what could be considered the most cumbersome run-chase in the IPL 2023 so far, Sunrisers Hyderabad batters, barring Mayank Agarwal and Heinrich Klassen to an extent, didn’t look like they belonged.

It was especially disappointing from an SRH standpoint that they lost to Delhi Capitals, a side that had lost five of their six encounters coming into the Monday clash, and the loss has almost put them in a position of no return as far as a spot in the playoffs is concerned. Aiden Markram found it very difficult to digest and stated that it was very difficult to grasp.

“Not good with the bat again, not enough intent. Unfortunately, we looked like a team that was not excited to win a game of cricket. We'll have to go back to look at how we can chase better and be free as a team and as a unit, and hopefully, that can help us going forward,” Markram said in the post-match presentation.

“It's difficult. You can say all the right things, but ultimately guys need to buy into it. We want to play a certain brand of cricket, and if we get it wrong doing that, then we'll sleep a lot better at night. But unfortunately, tonight just lacked a bit of intent. We've got really good players and really good batters, and unfortunately, I think we're just letting ourselves down through lack of intent. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the most economical spell of IPL 2023, conceding just 11 runs in four overs and he was duly complemented by Washington Sundar and T Natarajan. Markram was extremely proud of the way they pulled off their spell.

“Incredibly proud of them, they executed great game plans, kept it pretty simple and used the conditions well tonight. It's a pity we couldn't get the job done for them. Our bowlers didn't deserve to be on the losing side like this tonight,” the SRH skipper added.