SRH suffered a 38-run defeat against GT and are almost out of the playoff race now. SRH skipper Pat Cummins admitted their team had leaked a lot of runs in the powerplay, and their fielding has not been up to the mark. Let’s look at the reasons for SRH’s defeat.
Poor bowling
SRH bowlers failed to take early wickets in the powerplay. This is the problem faced by every team playing against GT this year. Openers set a strong foundation to post a huge total on the board. Their bowlers poor form has been a concern for them in this whole season.
Mohammed Shami and Harshal Patel couldn’t replicate what Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan did for them in the previous years. Mohammed Shami conceded 5 boundaries to Sai Sudharsan in the third over of the powerplay.
4 out of 6 SRH bowlers went for more than 10 runs per over yesterday. None of their bowlers looked like an “x” factor or a threatening player to opponents.
Lack of intent in batters
Chasing such a huge total of 225, SRH batters failed to show the aggressive intent initially. Except Abhishek Sharma, who scored 74 runs off just 41 balls, none of the batters looked comfortable in the middle. Ishan Kishan ( 13 of 17 ) and Henrich Klaasen ( 23 of 18 ) took time to settle in the crease, but got out at the wrong time.
Abhishek didn’t get the support from the other end. The pitch was good for batting, but SRH batters couldn’t counter-attack the GT fast bowlers. Rashid Khan was bashed for 50 runs in his 3 overs. But their prime Indian fast bowlers, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, gave just 52 runs and picked 4 wickets in their 8 overs combined. That was the difference between the two teams.
Small cameos from Nitish Kumar Reddy and Pat Cummins in the end only helped SRH to reduce the margin of defeat.
Catches win Matches
Fielding was also a great difference between the two sides, and it decided the fate of the match. Pat Cummins dropped Jos Buttler at 22 runs off 14 balls in the 12th over when GT’s score was 138. Buttler went on to add 42 runs in his next 23 balls and helped his team to post a big total.
On the other hand, Rashid Khan picked a stunning catch of Travis Head in the 5th over when the score was 49. Prasidh Krishna took the catch of Ishan Kishan in the 10th over when the score was 82. These two catches played an important role in GT’s victory as they affected the momentum in the chase.
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