With only six points from nine games, SRH the 2016 champions are second from the bottom of the points table while their lack of effectiveness with the bat has been the main factor in their dwindling stocks this season; they have only won one game in their last five attempts.
“We’re trying to get a winning combination. We seem to be getting it, definitely in the bowling department. Those guys have put their hands up in nearly every single match. We just let them down with the bat.”
This is how head coach Brian Lara summed up Sunrisers Hyderabad’s IPL 2023 so far.
With only six points from nine games, the 2016 champions are second from the bottom of the points table. Their lack of effectiveness with the bat has been the main factor in their dwindling stocks this season; they have only won one game in their last five attempts.
Even in their most recent match, which took place on Thursday (May 4), against Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers fell short with the bat as they managed only 166 in a 172-run chase, with Varun Chakaravarthy defending eight in the last over.
Lara argued that match awareness is necessary to go along with all of the purposes that have been shown by the Sunrisers, feeling that early wickets and a lack of partnerships have hurt them.
“We keep losing a couple of wickets in the power play. That always sets you back a bit. We asked [Heinrich] Klaasen, who has been batting tremendously for us, to do all the hard work again. He’s coming in at No.6 and we’ve got five quality players before him. It’s always been a task, I wouldn’t say uphill. Obviously, the batters will know that the responsibility of winning the game on such a good batting track lay in their hands and we were unable to do it. I just believe that we have to place a little more importance on partnerships and understanding a little bit of match awareness. It’s all great to be aggressive and have all the intent. But you got to use a little bit upstairs to get the job done.
Sunrisers managed 53 in the power play to start the chase off well, but they also lost three wickets in the process. The innings were revived by a 70-run partnership off 47 balls between Klaasen and skipper Aiden Markram. But the departure of the set batters and a fine spell in the death from Varun CV meant that SRH slipped to their sixth loss.
When asked if the SRH batters could have done better again spin, Lara replied:
“They are quality spinners and we’re seeing that as a trend, as the tournament goes on the spinners are coming into play. We try to maximize the powerplay and see how much we can get in the powerplay. We won the powerplay. It’s just the fact that we lost a couple of wickets and the likes of Narine, and Chakaravarthy, they are all world-class spinners.
“At that stage maybe understanding what was necessary. Markram and Klaasen did put on a good partnership, we got ourselves right back in the game with a couple of big overs and lost a couple of wickets at a very crucial stage of the match. I wouldn’t say it’s a weakness against spin or anything like that. I just believe that we had a game to win. We have to hold our hands up and say they didn’t beat us, we lost the game,” he said.
However, Harry Brook, who was removed for a duck for the second time in a row and hasn’t done much since his century against the Knight Riders a few weeks ago, experienced yet another setback. Lara said that it is Brook’s responsibility to determine what is wrong with him and that he and the other coaching staff members are always available to listen and help him out.
“Harry works very hard in the nets. He hits a lot of balls; he looks in good shape in the nets. When you look at him batting and preparing for the match, he looks in pretty good shape. Harry will have to work out what’s going wrong. I’m always here with an ear to listen to or give advice anytime needed. We also have a batting coach in Hemang as well. So we’ve got the ingredients to work with any of the players. Hopefully, if Harry improves it will be a great benefit for the team.”