SRH suffered a crushing 72-run defeat at the hands of RR in their IPL 2023 opener.
Asked to bat first, the Royals posted a massive 203/5 in their allotted 20 overs on the back of half-centuries from Jos Buttler (54 off 22), Yashasvi Jaiswal (54 off 37) and Sanju Samson (55 off 32).
In the chase, SRH were restricted to 131/8 in 20 overs. They were reeling at 95/8 and looked like slipping to a bigger loss but Abdul Samad (32) and Umran Malik (19 not out) helped them avoid more damage to their Net Run Rate.
Wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal starred with the ball for RR, returning with the figures of 4 for 17 in his four overs.
After the game, SRH’s stand-in skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar advised his teammates to forget this result and move on.
"100 per cent we can say that, let's forget and move on," Bhuvneshwar said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"We have to just work at it and move forward. The last five-six overs in our bowling and Umran's knock at the end - they were a couple of positives. here was something in it for the slow bowlers. It is the first match of the season and there is a lot to improve," he added.
Notably, Sunrisers Hyderabad missed the services of their captain Aiden Markram and all-rounder Marco Jansen in the opening fixture. The South African duo was on international duty and they should join the franchise ahead of their second game.
Bhuvneshwar acknowledged that the return of Markram will certainly bolster their batting line-up.
"South Africans are coming back, our captain is coming back and we will be a much better batting unit. We need to execute our plans and hopefully we will get better," he stated.
SRH will take on Lucknow Super Giants in their next match at Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday (April 7).