T Natarajan, who had tested positive for Covid-19 could not play the match against DC. Trevor Bayliss, SRH coach says that his absence did not have much impact on the performance of the team.
SRH Head Coach, Trevor Bayliss says that T Natarajan’s absence due to being Covid positive did not have much impact on the performance of the players against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday as all the players are used to last-minute setbacks.
The game proceeded when the rest of the players came out negative but Delhi Capitals put on a great show with the bat and ball to cruise an eight-wicket victory with 13 balls to spare.
“I don’t think that would have affected the result of the match. They played way too well for us tonight. It was a little bit of an upset,”
Bayliss said at the post-match press conference.
“Natarajan was going to play, but these guys are professional players. Every now and then, there’s an injury just before play and you have got to make a late replacement. So, I am sure all of the players are, in a way, used to that. But we hope Nattu (Natarajan) gets over it pretty quickly and we can move on,”
added Bayliss.
The SRH Head Coach also added that DC has world-class tall pacers that used the wicket quite well and they deserved the victory for their side.
South African duo of Kagiso Rabada (3/37) and Anrich Nortje (2/12) used their pace quite sensibly to help DC restrict SRH to 134 for 9 on Wednesday in match number 33 of IPL.
The Rishabh Pant led DC then raced towards the target with 13 balls to spare.
“Give Delhi the credit. They bowled particularly well. They have got some world-class bowlers and upfront some world-class very fast bowlers, so they had a good day. We didn’t have such a good day and that’s the game of cricket,”
Bayliss said.
“Their bowlers upfront bowled exceedingly well. A lot of paces and used the wicket well with cutters, with the ball just holding in the wicket little bit and jumping up a little bit, those tall fast bowlers took full advantage of it.”
With Natarajan missing from the side, SRH went with a left-arm pacer, Khaleel Ahmed and Sandeep Sharma to take the responsibility for their side.
Sandeep was handed the ball later in the innings but Khaleel opened the attack alongside the seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“Khaleel (Ahmed) in our practice matches has probably been one of our best bowlers. He was getting the ball to move around in those practice games. He is a little bit taller.
“We thought the balls for the taller guys were sticking in the wicket. He basically bowled quite well. It was one of those things, trying to fit three new ball bowlers into two.
“Today, we went with Khaleel, which meant Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) had to play a little bit of a different role,”
Bayliss said.