IPL 2021 | SRH vs MI - What Experts Said Hyderabad make a meal out of a simple chase yet again

The Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their third consecutive game in the season of the Indian Premier League after they were defeated by the Mumbai Indians on Saturday, 17 April. Marking one more loss in the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai, a ground where they have not won in the team’s history, SRH once again made a meal of what looked like an easy chase at the halfway point of the game.

Chasing a target of 150, arguably a decent total in a tricky pitch, Hyderabad started exceedingly well in their chase. Majorly shouldered by some blistering shotmaking by Jonny Bairstow, Sunrisers were sitting comfortably at 57/0 after the first six overs. 

Things seemed to go on very well for the team and it looked like they might be able to shake off the two awful losses that they had to incur in their first two games.

Alas, Sunrisers once again found a way to throw all the good work down the gutter and managed to get themselves bundled out for 137 runs from 68 for no loss. And it all started in the most oddest of manners.

A hit wicket.

When it seemed that Jonny Bairstow could do no wrong, he went too deep into his crease trying to access the deep square leg channel behind the stump. This led to his back foot crashing into the stumps and it meant that the prodigious Englishman had to depart.

From there it was just a trainwreck waiting to happen for SRH. Manish Pandey was once again guilty of playing a reckless shot at a time when his team really needed him to stay and see the game through. Some good fielding from Hardik Pandya found David Warner well short of his crease in the 12th over and from there the script was pretty much known.

No team that cannot bat deep survives in the IPL. The middle-order was forever an issue for a top-heavy team like Hyderabad, but nobody could have predicted the sheer inability of the unit to survive even the full quota of overs in a T20 match.

Barring Vijay Shankar’s 28 off 25 deliveries none of the other batsmen troubled the scorers much and SRH were handed a 13 run defeat.

Earlier in the day, sent to field first, SRH bowlers did well to use their arsenal of cutters and knuckle balls to squeeze the life out of the Mumbai Indians innings. If it were not for Kieron Pollard’s late assault in the death, SRH were looking set to restrict the Mumbai train between 130-135 runs.

In difficult conditions, Kieron Pollard sat back and waited for the opportunity to present itself to go bonkers in the small Chidambaram Stadium. Struggling at 20 off 18 balls, Pollard punished Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the final over of the innings for 17 runs, which included two huge sixes, something that would turn out to be the difference between them later in the day.

The captains at the end of the game agreed that this wicket has kept getting slower and slower, and teams need to play smart cricket if they want to win at the end of the day.

Captains’ Viewpoint

Losing captain David Warner said that it was difficult to accept the loss considering the position that they were in.

"I don't know how to take that. Two of us got set, my run out, Jonny stepping on his wickets, and false shots in the middle proved that if you don't have two guys at the end, you don't win. These scores are very chase-able, it's just poor batting. If you get a partnership and have one guy at the end, you can chase down 150 easily. You just need smart cricket in the middle, we aren't doing that. I think our bowlers adapted well to this wicket, it's slower than the ones we played on earlier. We've got to learn from the mistakes and right now it's just the batsmen. We've got to take responsibility. Got to move forward, put some smiles on our faces." Warner said.

Shedding some light on the matter of Kane Williamson’s fitness, Warner stated that it should not take too long for the New Zealand skipper to get back into the game. 

“Have been speaking to the phsyio and Williamson is coming along nicely and I'm sure if he's ready to go he might get an opportunity," he concluded.

Rohit Sharma echoed Warner’s sentiments in the post-match interview and stated that it is not getting easier to bat on this deck. 

“Great effort from the bowling unit, we knew it was not going to be easy. When you have a pitch like that and the bowlers execute, it makes it easy for a captain. I thought we had a good score for this pitch. You saw both the teams capitalizing on the powerplay. Having said that, we can do better in the middle overs. All the players are experienced enough to do that. But I don't want to take credit away from them, when you have guys like Rashid and Mujeeb bowling it's not easy. The pitch is getting slower and slower, bowlers are always in the game till 20 overs. Even the seamers it's not easy to get them away and the slowish nature makes it harder for the batter to slog straight away. You need one set batsman at the end, just need some intelligent batting. I thought our fielding was good today, that's something we take pride in, we want to be the best unit in the tournament.” Rohit stated.

Experts Take

Veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle pointed out on the night that champion teams find out ways of winning the game. In his brief tweet, Bhogle pointed out the phases of play where Mumbai took the game away from the opposition.  

As discussed earlier in the piece, Chennai has not been an easy place to go out for the batsman. But the SRH contingent have made it look more difficult with their middle order not showing up. CricViz's data pointed out accurately as to how SRH have lost the plot this season, imploding in the middle overs and letting go of chases by playing rash shots. 

While SRH may have found ways to lose all three of their games, that does not mean that the Chennai pitch is not to blame. CricViz stated that a total of 57 wickets have fallen in total in the second half of the innings while only 15 have been sent back into the pavilion in the first 10 overs. With more games to be played at the venue, would Chennai see more downfalls like these or would batsmen find a way to work around it, like how Pollard did tonight?

Sanjay Manjrekar did not mince any words tonight and attacked the SRH selection policy of selecting three young uncapped Indians in the middle order. Giving a chance to unproven players has been a theme for the Hyderabad franchise from some time now but history does state that it puts an incredible amount of pressure at the top of the order.

Ian Bishop on the other hand, took notice of Jasprit Bumrah's unplayable second spell tonight. Bumrah while being great in the early overs, returned to his lethal best late in the innings. Bowling to the likes of Abdul Samad and Vijay Shankar, he put up his arsenal of cutters, slower yorkers and on pace deliveries that made life incredibly difficult for the batsmen. Bumrah finished with an economy of just 3.5 from his four overs, something that is considered as gold in the T20 format.

With their third loss in three games, SRH reel at the bottom of the table in the early parts of the tournament. While it indeed is early days, it looks like SRH's problems might continue given they are already playing their best XI. With Kane Williamson possibly coming into the next game, it would surely be Mujeeb Ur Rahman who will make way for the Kiwi captain. 
While this does not solve the frail middle order issue, at least SRH will get a player who has made his name in the history of cricket for his ice-cool mentality and ability to play better than most in the subcontinental conditions.