SRH won only one out of seven matches in the first-leg of IPL 2021.
SRH captain Kane Williamson, who took over the leadership duties from David Warner in the middle of the first leg of IPL 2021, still believes his team has a small chance to qualify for the playoffs.
“After the first half of the competition, it wasn’t perhaps our best and that hasn’t increased our chances to make the playoffs. But I still believe that there is a small chance, and we have to win pretty much all our games,” Williamson told Sportstar.
“I think the challenge for us really is coming together as a group and putting up much-improved performances and I think that will give us the best chance to get the right results in games as we know in this competition, all the teams are strong and all the teams can beat each other. It is one of the toughest competitions in the world, it is exciting. But for us, the focus is what is in front of us and what is in our control,” Williamson said.
England's Jonny Bairstow pulled out of the ongoing second-leg and the captain admitted that it was a bit of a loss to the team.
“Jonny is one of the standout players, so yeah, a bit of a loss for us. Having little bit of time after the first half – naturally, it all came to an abrupt end – the guys had a chance to reflect and try and really connect to what’s important for us as a team to put up a performance that we know is collective. It is a team approach that we need to try and execute. That is the focus,” Williamson said
In the first leg of IPL 2021, SRH came close to winning but faltered at the end on a few occasions.
"We have seen quite a few close games in the first half and could not quite come out on the right side. It is the nature of the sport. But here we are in a different country, with different conditions, so the challenges will be a bit different.
We need to try and make the adjustments as quickly as possible and play with some freedom and if possible, get some momentum in the second half of the competition,” he said.
(With Sportstar inputs)