In fact, the sport is a fantastic leveller. Daniel Vettori, the head coach of SRH, admitted this fact on Thursday, April 25, in Hyderabad, following his team’s crushing defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who are currently in last place. Just 10 days had passed since these two teams’ last meeting when SRH broke their own record for the greatest IPL total ever. However, when it came time to chase down 207 runs, they faltered, with both of their openers suffering an uncommon error.
In order to put pressure on the home team, RCB was able to remove Travis Head in the first over and Abhishek Sharma in the fourth. After the game, Vettori remarked, “Obviously we were confident because of the scores we were able to put up.” “We considered 206 to be a respectable result; the group had a lot of confidence based on previous performances.
We also know that the openers set the tone, and they had a poor day today—that’s part of playing cricket, right? We didn’t anticipate them playing 14 games, and regrettably, we didn’t receive any help in the midst. It’s a painful defeat, but we recognise that there are no easy games in the Indian Premier League and that every side can defeat any team.”
Vettori did point out that they should change their strategy in Chennai for their next game, even if he dismissed the idea of one of the batsmen attempting to bat through the innings on a surface that had something in it for the slower bowlers. “The guys who came off all said that it was a surface that you could score on,” he continued. Anchor roles are difficult to fulfil when chasing 207. It’s obvious that you need to be aggressive; 10 and over implies you need two limits, so it can be challenging for someone to fit in and take on an anchor role, but we’ll give it some thought.
“Now that we have established totals successfully, we need to examine our pursuing strategy. We play a very strong squad in Chennai, so I guess our best course of action is to concede the game and accept that the conditions in Chepauk may change and require us to approach things differently. I continue to believe that we must play the game on these fields and surfaces.”
Should the nation’s surfaces begin to slow down, Jaydev Unadkat might play a significant role in the SRH bowling attack. “I think when the surface suits him and to be fair to him he probably gets more bounce and has the ability to stop the ball on the wicket than most,” he stated. His slow ball bouncers almost make him a top spinner, so when he follows a strategy, he bowls exceptionally well. He was obviously left out of the last game because we felt the Delhi surface wasn’t quite right for him, but he has shown us three excellent performances on this ground (Hyderabad).
Captain of the RCB, Faf du Plessis, expressed relief that his team had finally ended their losing run. Following their inaugural victory on March 25, RCB had suffered six straight losses until winning one at last. “We have definitely shown great signs of fight in the last two games,” he stated during the post-match presentation ceremony. “We nearly scored 260 (262) in the SRH game, which was 270 (287) plus, and the KKR game was also quite impressive—one run, nearly a record-chasing total. Although we have been close for some time, winning games is necessary to restore the group’s confidence. We’re all very relieved about it. Whoever you are, losing has an impact on your confidence and mental health. For that reason, I’ll be able to sleep a little bit better tonight.”
The experienced South African batsman also underlined the importance of using the bat as a unit rather than depending solely on individuals. “You see in the last game, there is some confidence in our batting, we have got more guys contributing now,” he said. “Obviously, Virat was the only one making a difference in the first half of the tournament. Rajat has played two excellent innings in a row, and Greeny’s runs tonight will be crucial for him to relieve some of his burdens. As we’ve seen, the scores are quite high, therefore it’s critical for the batting lineup to work together to score runs. No one player will be able to score runs by himself.”
Karn Sharma’s influence on the bowling assault was also noted by Du Plessis, particularly at locations larger than the Chinnaswamy stadium. On the home pitch of RCB, du Plessis stated, “Let’s be honest, it’s a difficult ground to bowl at.” “We’ve looked for a formula to bowl at that field, but our boys have had trouble coming up with one that works there. Karn was wonderful when you get to venues like this, where the wicket has a little bit of grip and is a little bit bigger. A legspinner is essential to the team, especially in the modern T20 cricket era.”
