Over-dependency on the top order
SRH have been facing the same problem since last year, which cost them the finals as well. They have an explosive batting line up which is capable of scoring 280 on any given day. But circumstances like this can happen when suddenly your top order will fail, and a sudden collapse in the batting order might happen.
They should have someone who can hold the end and take the game deeper. Batters like Travis Head, Henrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy got decent starts but couldn’t convert it into a long innings. Klaasen’s dismissal was unfortunate, but Nitish threw his wicket at the wrong time.
In last match against RR, Ishan stood in the middle and played long innings while others played around him. Even Travis Head was dropped 2 times today but he failed to make it big. If not for the cameos of Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins, SRH would have bundled out at 160. Such things happen when you play in the same gear for the whole innings.
It’s a double-edged sword. When the other batters are having a bad day and you got a start, it’s ok for one batter to stay in the middle and take the game deep. It’s good to have an alternate plan. You can’t go with your plan A every time.
Poor Bowling combination
When you are playing in a flat track which literally has nothing for the bowlers, it’s always good to rely on spinners than fast bowlers. In these type of pitches, the more faster you bowl the more longer you will get hit by the batter. Playing three seamers makes no sense in these pitches until they have some tricky variations like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Natarajan. This duo made the death bowling easy for SRH last year.
Bowling in death in this flat track with dew in play is not easy as these two made it looked like. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had the ability to swing the ball in any given conditions and had the ability to control the old ball in the dew and nail Yorkers. He also add good slow Yorkers in which the ball will dip and make it tough for the batters to pick. Natarajan gives a left arm angle and had better control over the old ball and nailed toe crushers in the death overs. Natrajan also had good slow Yorkers to his armoury.
Also Pat Cummins gave 2 overs to Abhishek Sharma within the powerplay, which was again not necessary. First over against two right handers is fine but could have avoided the second over, especially when Pooran is batting in devil mode.
Harshal Patel has the same ability in the death overs, but he couldn’t control the ball in the dew. His best season with RCB came in 2021 when the IPL happened at Dubai, where there is very little dew in the evening, which gives him good control over the old ball. Even his fifer against Mumbai Indians in 2022 came at the slow pitch of Chepauk.
Simarjeet Singh is a hit the deck bowler and is not effective in these flat pitches that too in the middle and death overs. He was bowling good length and short length deliveries only to get smashed in the stands. The ball was skidding and made it easy for the batter to pick the length of the ball.
Yesterday Simarjeet bowled two overs and went for 28 runs. In last match against RR, he bowled 3 overs and went for 46 runs and picked two wickets. Simarjeet is a good bowler indeed but he doesn’t fit as a fourth fast bowler in this flat deck. They could have gone for Rahul Chahar instead of it.
Wrist spinners are always wicket takers. They will go for runs but will also create chances. They will toss the ball and flight it up which tempts the batter to go for a big shot which will create chances. Rahul Chahar already played for Mumbai Indians franchise at Wankhede in 2018-19 seasons in a pitch which literally has nothing for the spinners but performed well for them.
Rahul Chahar, along with Zampa, operating in the middle overs with one or two overs of Abishek Sharma or Travis Head in between, might bring some changes. They might still go for runs and but they are also chances of taking wickets.
Lack of planning against Nicholas Pooran
When a batter like Pooran is in a different mode and destroying every bowler, SRH seemed clueless. They didn’t have any plan against him. There were no missed shots or no half-chances created. Finally, Captain Pat Cummins himself came into the attack and bowled a stump line Yorker to dismiss him. None of the other bowlers tried to execute Yorkers against him earlier. They were just hitting the good length, and the ball was skidding in the dirt, which makes it easier for the batter to hit.
When Pooran smashed Zampa, Cummins could have tried a gamble with Travis Head, an off-spinner against a left hander match up. Cummins is known for taking such brave calls and he had done that in the past as well. He had taken such a gamble in the biggest stage of cricket in the world cup final, when he gave the last over of powerplay to Maxwell to tempt Rohit Sharma to go for the big shot and succeeded in his plan. Rohit fell for the trap. He didn’t take such gambles today and just went with the regular bowlers.
But SRH won’t change their approach of batting for just one failure, they will back their batters. They can strengthen their bowling by adding Rahul Chahar in place of Simarjeet Singh. They can even try someone like Jaydev Unadkat, who is again going to leak plenty of runs but he provides a left arm angle and got can vary the pace with the old ball.
Also Read: SRH vs LSG: Nicholas Pooran’s Blitz Annihilates SRH