Sunrisers Hyderabad's head coach, Daniel Vettori, revealed that the team's attempt to maximize the powerplay backfired against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday, resulting in their sixth defeat of the IPL 2025 season.
Sunrisers Hyderabad were caught off guard by Mumbai Indians' new-ball pairing of Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult on a surface with considerable movement, as they picked up a brace each to reach 13 for 4 in the fifth over.
Vettori believes the toss was essential since the pitch for Wednesday's game was different from those in previous matches in Hyderabad.
"I think, obviously, the toss was important. We wanted to bowl first because the conditions were vastly different; it was a different wicket from the previous ones. I mean, we've discussed that it's a 280, 250 wicket. So, conditions changed dramatically. So, to be able to get that assessment early on, around what a par score was, is obviously difficult.
When you go in there early on, you're obviously trying to maximize that power play. And unfortunately, we weren't able to, and we kept losing wickets. Once we realized that the surface wasn't what we anticipated, then we needed to build towards that sort of 180 score. That, unfortunately, is difficult to do when you're 24 for four after the power play,” Vettori said in a post-match press conference.
The inability to understand the conditions and respond fast proved devastating for SRH once more. By the time they could change their aggressive strategy, they had been reduced to 35 for 5 in the ninth over.
"Once we got through that, maybe two overs, the assessment was that it was not the 250-260 wicket that this has been the last couple of games. And we obviously went out of our depth. I mean, the dismissal of Ishan is obviously disappointing, and that puts pressure on everyone coming in.
When you're in a power play situation, you still want to try and maximize those two fielders out. So there's still some emphasis or onus on the batsmen that are there to try and score some runs. And today it was very unfortunate that they couldn't get it done,” Vettori said.
"Understanding what a good score is, what a par score is, and being able to set that up. Travis and Abhi [Abhishek Sharma], when they go, they're very aggressive, and they take the game on, and it's led to a lot of success for us. When they don't succeed, then it's the responsibility of the other batsmen. And potentially that's what we haven't had this season, around the ability for partnerships, for one or two guys to step up in games. We got two today, but it was just a little bit too late for us,” he added.
Vettori complimented Heinrich Klaasen and Abhinav Manohar for their 99-run stand, which created the groundwork for SRH's ultimate score of 143 for 8. Even though the total was considerably below par and brought down with 4.2 overs to spare, it gave SRH a chance to fight.
SRH has had two wins from eight league games so far. However, Vettori remains optimistic and hopes to draw inspiration from Royal Challengers Bengaluru to make a comeback this season.
(PTI inputs)
