Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori believes that having mastered the art of setting totals, it is time for his team to brush up on their chasing skills as the business end of the Indian Premier League approaches. SRH are currently third in the standings with five wins from eight matches. Of the five wins, four have come batting first. “We have managed to post totals and now we have to see how good we are at chasing,” Vettori said after the 35-point defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Thursday evening.
RCB posted a challenging 206 for 7 after opting to bat and then restricted SRH to 171 for 8.
For a team that has surpassed the 250-point mark three times this season, the target was easily achievable, but a rare failure in the top and mid-table ended up costing the hosts dearly.
“It's obviously a disappointing game where we've come from the last four games; we've played some really good cricket and even though we lost you could see if we had some wickets at the back we could have still gone after it .” Vettori said this at the post-match press conference.
“Those early wickets ruined everything. We were confident in the scores we could put up. We felt 206 was a good score but we probably left a few runs in the field. But there was confidence in the group because of the past performances.
“We also knew it was set up by the openers and how well they played and today they had a bad day and that's cricket,” he said.
The former New Zealand cricketer said there are no easy games in IPL.
“Unfortunately, we didn't get the support in the middle stages. It's a tough defeat, but we understand that any team in the IPL can beat any team. There are no easy matches at all,” Vettori said.
The coach believed that the role of an anchor is meaningless in high-scoring games.
“I think the wicket was still quite good. The guys coming off said it's a surface you can score on. The anchor role when you're chasing 207 is tough to come by, you obviously have to be aggressive. For some it's hard to come along and playing the role of anchor is a bit tricky.” RCB all-rounder Swapnil Singh, meanwhile, was relieved after his side broke their six-match losing streak.
“The experience was good, but we won the match that was more important. When you win a match, the pace changes in the team. It feels good. We missed the last two matches by a small margin, but there is still a long to leave,” he said.
Swapnil said they felt the target was sufficient on this wicket despite SRH boasting of a super-aggressive batting order.
“The ball stopped. Our main aim was to spin the ball and bowl slower like a fast bowler. It helped, we knew they were going to come at us hard and obviously they did.
“Yes, we felt that because the wicket also stopped when we were batting and there was no dew,” he said.
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