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IPL 2021 | SRH vs MI - What Experts Said Hyderabad make a meal out of a simple chase yet again

The Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their third consecutive game in the season of the Indian Premier League after they were defeated by the Mumbai Indians on Saturday, 17 April. Marking one more loss in the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai, a ground where they have not won in the team’s history, SRH once again made a meal of what looked like an easy chase at the halfway point of the game.

Chasing a target of 150, arguably a decent total in a tricky pitch, Hyderabad started exceedingly well in their chase. Majorly shouldered by some blistering shotmaking by Jonny Bairstow, Sunrisers were sitting comfortably at 57/0 after the first six overs. 

Things seemed to go on very well for the team and it looked like they might be able to shake off the two awful losses that they had to incur in their first two games.

Alas, Sunrisers once again found a way to throw all the good work down the gutter and managed to get themselves bundled out for 137 runs from 68 for no loss. And it all started in the most oddest of manners.

A hit wicket.

When it seemed that Jonny Bairstow could do no wrong, he went too deep into his crease trying to access the deep square leg channel behind the stump. This led to his back foot crashing into the stumps and it meant that the prodigious Englishman had to depart.

From there it was just a trainwreck waiting to happen for SRH. Manish Pandey was once again guilty of playing a reckless shot at a time when his team really needed him to stay and see the game through. Some good fielding from Hardik Pandya found David Warner well short of his crease in the 12th over and from there the script was pretty much known.

No team that cannot bat deep survives in the IPL. The middle-order was forever an issue for a top-heavy team like Hyderabad, but nobody could have predicted the sheer inability of the unit to survive even the full quota of overs in a T20 match.

Barring Vijay Shankar’s 28 off 25 deliveries none of the other batsmen troubled the scorers much and SRH were handed a 13 run defeat.

Earlier in the day, sent to field first, SRH bowlers did well to use their arsenal of cutters and knuckle balls to squeeze the life out of the Mumbai Indians innings. If it were not for Kieron Pollard’s late assault in the death, SRH were looking set to restrict the Mumbai train between 130-135 runs.

In difficult conditions, Kieron Pollard sat back and waited for the opportunity to present itself to go bonkers in the small Chidambaram Stadium. Struggling at 20 off 18 balls, Pollard punished Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the final over of the innings for 17 runs, which included two huge sixes, something that would turn out to be the difference between them later in the day.

The captains at the end of the game agreed that this wicket has kept getting slower and slower, and teams need to play smart cricket if they want to win at the end of the day.

Captains’ Viewpoint

Losing captain David Warner said that it was difficult to accept the loss considering the position that they were in.

"I don't know how to take that. Two of us got set, my run out, Jonny stepping on his wickets, and false shots in the middle proved that if you don't have two guys at the end, you don't win. These scores are very chase-able, it's just poor batting. If you get a partnership and have one guy at the end, you can chase down 150 easily. You just need smart cricket in the middle, we aren't doing that. I think our bowlers adapted well to this wicket, it's slower than the ones we played on earlier. We've got to learn from the mistakes and right now it's just the batsmen. We've got to take responsibility. Got to move forward, put some smiles on our faces." Warner said.

Shedding some light on the matter of Kane Williamson’s fitness, Warner stated that it should not take too long for the New Zealand skipper to get back into the game. 

“Have been speaking to the phsyio and Williamson is coming along nicely and I'm sure if he's ready to go he might get an opportunity," he concluded.

Rohit Sharma echoed Warner’s sentiments in the post-match interview and stated that it is not getting easier to bat on this deck. 

“Great effort from the bowling unit, we knew it was not going to be easy. When you have a pitch like that and the bowlers execute, it makes it easy for a captain. I thought we had a good score for this pitch. You saw both the teams capitalizing on the powerplay. Having said that, we can do better in the middle overs. All the players are experienced enough to do that. But I don't want to take credit away from them, when you have guys like Rashid and Mujeeb bowling it's not easy. The pitch is getting slower and slower, bowlers are always in the game till 20 overs. Even the seamers it's not easy to get them away and the slowish nature makes it harder for the batter to slog straight away. You need one set batsman at the end, just need some intelligent batting. I thought our fielding was good today, that's something we take pride in, we want to be the best unit in the tournament.” Rohit stated.


Experts Take

Veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle pointed out on the night that champion teams find out ways of winning the game. In his brief tweet, Bhogle pointed out the phases of play where Mumbai took the game away from the opposition.  


As discussed earlier in the piece, Chennai has not been an easy place to go out for the batsman. But the SRH contingent have made it look more difficult with their middle order not showing up. CricViz's data pointed out accurately as to how SRH have lost the plot this season, imploding in the middle overs and letting go of chases by playing rash shots. 


While SRH may have found ways to lose all three of their games, that does not mean that the Chennai pitch is not to blame. CricViz stated that a total of 57 wickets have fallen in total in the second half of the innings while only 15 have been sent back into the pavilion in the first 10 overs. With more games to be played at the venue, would Chennai see more downfalls like these or would batsmen find a way to work around it, like how Pollard did tonight?

Sanjay Manjrekar did not mince any words tonight and attacked the SRH selection policy of selecting three young uncapped Indians in the middle order. Giving a chance to unproven players has been a theme for the Hyderabad franchise from some time now but history does state that it puts an incredible amount of pressure at the top of the order.

Ian Bishop on the other hand, took notice of Jasprit Bumrah's unplayable second spell tonight. Bumrah while being great in the early overs, returned to his lethal best late in the innings. Bowling to the likes of Abdul Samad and Vijay Shankar, he put up his arsenal of cutters, slower yorkers and on pace deliveries that made life incredibly difficult for the batsmen. Bumrah finished with an economy of just 3.5 from his four overs, something that is considered as gold in the T20 format.


With their third loss in three games, SRH reel at the bottom of the table in the early parts of the tournament. While it indeed is early days, it looks like SRH's problems might continue given they are already playing their best XI. With Kane Williamson possibly coming into the next game, it would surely be Mujeeb Ur Rahman who will make way for the Kiwi captain. 
While this does not solve the frail middle order issue, at least SRH will get a player who has made his name in the history of cricket for his ice-cool mentality and ability to play better than most in the subcontinental conditions.

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IPL 2021 | MI vs SRH: Hits & Flops as Mumbai dig a deeper hole for hopeless Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to break the chain of losing games from positions of strength against the Mumbai Indians and slipped to a third consecutive loss in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. With the win, the Mumbai Indians surged to the top of the points table while the Sunrisers nosedived to the bottom and will have a lot of catching up to do to put their campaign back on track. There is no end of problems for the Sunrisers with their stronger suit bowling failing to check opposition sides getting scores just around the par score while the batting unit has not come to terms with the slow pitch at Chepauk. Here, we shall decipher the best and the worst performances of the night. Hits Kieron Pollard The Mumbai Indians have a daunting batting line up right from the top of the lower order. However, their dominance has been tamed by bowlers using cutters and lack of pace on very slow pitches in Chennai. Their five and six have been Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya for the last few seasons and the duo has been the most prolific six hitters in the final phase of the game. The Mumbai side had struggled to get a rapid-fire finish from both of them in their last two games this season. The struggle prompted a change of batting order for both Pollard and Pandya’s batting position interchanged. The big man from Trinidad and Tobago walked out to bat when Mumbai were struggling to get going at 98/3 from 14 overs. They needed a big finish from their lower-order batsmen to get to a pars core they could defend. Pollard started very slowly as the Sunrisers had an over off Rashid against him. There was no sense of rush in his approach as he was aware of Rashid Khan being the most potent threat from the men in orange. Once Rashid was done, Pollard as at it from the 17th over when Rashid’s countryman Mujeeb Ur Rahman offered him a long hop. Pollard knew Mujeeb would not be as mentally strong as Rashid and he was ready to pounce on the spinner’s nerves. The long hop was dispatched way over the midwicket boundary for the biggest six of the tournament so far (105 metres). However, the Mumbai Indians were still short of where they would have liked to be after being only two wickets down by the 15th over. Pandya failed once again with the bat and the onus was on Pollard to take Mumbai to the best possible position. They were 138 at 19.4 overs and Pollard dispatched the last two deliveries of Bhuvneshwar Kumar with absolute disdain to touch the 150-run mark. Pollard was assigned the role of the sixth bowler as Hardik Pandya has not been bowling this IPL season and he was at it once again with the bowl as well. The pace of Adam Milne travelled with the new ball and Rohit needed someone to control one end to enforcing aggressive shots against the leg spinner Rahul Chahar. Pollard squeezed his two overs for only 10 runs and Chahar reaped a massive advantage out of it to take a three-wicket haul once again. Rahul Chahar Being the premier spinner for a champion side like the Mumbai Indians warrants some respect and Chahar has earned it with all the guile and deception. The deception however has not come in the form of variations in the bowling but in the execution of his tactics. In a tight game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was hit for big six by Shubman Gill. He tossed up the next ball as well and Gill was lured into playing a shot that led to his downfall. Later while interacting with the host broadcaster, he said that he has been playing with Gill for a long time and hence knew that the right-hander could not hit sixes one after the other and hence played with his ability. His role was instrumental in the Mumbai defending a mediocre total against the Knight Riders but the Mumbai needed to come good once again on a similar kind of pitch while defending almost an equivalent score. He was introduced just one over after the departure of Jonny Bairstow, who was threatening to take the game away from Mumbai. His first victim was Manish Pandey, who has come under the scanner for playing slow innings in the last two games. He has been quite defensive, especially against spinners and Chahar, maybe, knew once again that Pandey would look to dominate him to get going strongly. A flighted delivery around the off stump tempted Pandey into playing an uppish shot and the man with a bucket hand Pollard did not miss the catch to peg the Sunrisers back. He was challenged by Warner with a big six on the very first ball of his next over, but the leg spinner recovered quickly to make it only an 11-run over after conceding six runs on the first ball. Squeezing Virat Singh and Vijay Shankar for runs from there on in, Chahar made sure that the batsmen had to do something drastic to break the shackles. The pressure became enormous for Singh to handle and he attempted to hit his way out of the trouble. But, Chahar was smarter than him and bowled googly pitching on length to deny him any room to swing his arms. Just three balls later, the young Abhishek Sharma who was brought in the playing XI in hope of quickfire innings in the late middle order, perished in call of duty as Chahar was slower through the air and he could not get enough power behind his slog sweep. 102/3 became 105/5 and the required rate jumped to 9.4 runs per over from 8.17 at the end of the previous over and the job of squeezing the Sunrisers middle order was well done by Chahar once again. Chahar had said that Rohit Sharma trusts his abilities more than he does on himself at the time, and with two back to back match-turning spells, the leg spinner from Rajasthan is proving he deserves every bit of trust and backing from his skipper. Jonny Bairstow Jonny Bairstow was coming into the 14th edition of the IPL on the back of the superlative form in the white-ball cricket for England. However, his exclusion from the team last year and Wriddhiman Saha’s success with the bat meant the Yorkshireman had to start in the middle order. He has aced that slot as well for the England T20 team and hence, did not look out of depth in the middle order as well. But, as Saha struggled to keep up the pace at the top of the order, the Sunrises had no option but to switch to the dazzling duo of Bairstow-Warner for the game against the Mumbai Indians. The walk he took along with Warner while coming to bat must have sounded like a sound of redemption for the right-hander. The task was cut out though in the pursuit of 151 runs on a sluggish pitch that was not going to get any better with each passing over. He could face only two deliveries out of the first 12 bowled by Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah. Warner could not get going and the Sunrisers were tottering at just five from the first couple of overs. The course of the game needed to change and Bairstow took it upon himself to bring that upon the Mumbai bowling line up. Boult missed his line on two occasions and Bairstow made sure to make him pay for that. The Kiwi then switched to round the wicket to cramp him for the room, but Bairstow stands at the leg side of the ball all the time only to allow his hands to go freely at the ball. Boult put up a fuller ball in his slot, and the right-hander put that in the Sunrisers dugout to send a string gesture that things were under control till he was at the crease. A frustrated Boult tried a yorker at the stump but executed a full toss and Bairstow was in the mood to stabilise the innings after three consecutive shots to plunder him an 18-run over. Rohit brought the pace of Adam Milne that allowed Warner some breathing space but Bairstow was at the forefront once again. The New Zealander tried to test his backfoot game and got a top edge of his bat in an attempt to pull. A ferocious bat speed carried the top edge once again towards the Sunrisers camp. Milne tried to play smart and pitched the next ball to see if Bairstow is up to the task. To his dismay, the next ball was dispatched over his head for a six and the Sunrisers’ chase was underway by the fourth over although it started timidly. It needed Rohit to bring Bumrah to check Bairstow’s juggernaut and his bad luck forced him back to the pavilion. The chase derailed after his downfall but on a pitch where batsmen like Warner, de Kock and Pollard struggled for timing, his 22-ball 43 gave the Sunrisers a perfect start in pursuit of 151 runs. Flops Bhuvneshwar Kumar Like Bairstow, Bhuvneshwar Kumar too was at the top of his game in the ODI and the T20I series that preceded the IPL. He was prolific for India with both the new and old ball to help the men in blue win both the series against a very strong England side. His return from injury and excellent rhythm with the ball had raised expectations of him for the Sunrisers in the IPL. He was ruled out very early in the last season and the Sunrisers were banking on him to bring his international form to the IPL. However, his returns in the three games for the Sunrisers have been abysmal, to say the least. He has been searching for swing with the new ball while the cutters and knuckle ball have not pitched on perfect line and lengths. He was coming into the game against the Mumbai Indians with two middling performances and needed course correction as soon as possible. He started well in the first over but de Kock was at him from the word go. He started his second over on a better line against Rohit Sharma but could not find a sparkling delivery to provide the Sunrisers with an early breakthrough that has been his hallmark. The first two overs yielded 17 runs for the Mumbai Indians and Warner could only hope he would come handy in the latter part of the innings after digesting another failure with the new ball. The success did not come in the end over as well and instead, the two sixes he conceded against Pollard on the last two deliveries of the innings turned out to be the difference between the two sides at the end of the game. In the three games, he has played this season, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has picked up only two wickets at an abysmal average of 60 runs per wicket and at an economy rate of 10 runs per over which is so unbecoming for a bowler of his pedigree. Ishan Kishan Ishan Kishan appears to have weighed down by the expectations of him after a browbeating IPL season with the bat last year. He was the batsman with the mist number of sixes and his domination of the bowling attack from number position were not allowing oppositions to get in the game at any phase. His prowess and power game caught the eyes of national selector who were on the lookout for an enforcer in the middle order. Sanju Samson’s inconsistency played right into Kishan’s hand and the left-hander announced his arrival on the big stage replicating his IPL performance on the international stage. Coming into the ongoing edition of the IPL, Kishan has the form, the confidence to take his game one level up from where he was in the last season. However, the numbers have started to dry up for the man from Jharkhand. He was unlucky to find a fielder at fine leg on a nearly-perfectly executed pull shot in the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, what would hurt him more will be the innings against the Sunrisers. The pitch was slow at Chepauk and his partners were struggling to get going against spinners. Kishan has played a lot of domestic matches but he appeared to be all at sea against Rashid Khan and could barely manage to rotate strike. The match situation against the Sunrisers was the perfect one for a batsman like Kishan to stamp his authority on the game. He could have shown a lot more intent than he showed albeit it was fraught with risk. But, what good is an enforcer if he can’t throw caution to the wind and attempt to change the course of a match? Maybe, he understood his presence at the crease was more important than attacking shots and that runs can come later. But, none of that worked for him and had it not been for a marvellous innings from Pollard, Mumbai would have been defending a lot lesser target on the board. The win would be pleasing for the Mumbai Indians as they finally cracked the code of Chepauk. On the other hand, the Sunrisers have a lot of soul-searching to do before their next game. Before the game, both the think tanks had suggested they were not expecting any different pitch and conditions than the ones they had played in the games before the one on Saturday night, and that they were well-prepared with hard lessons from previous games. In the end, though, only the Mumbai Indians could translate their learning into performances while the Sunrisers faltered right from picking the playing Xi to execution of tactics on the field.

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IPL 2021 | DC vs PBKS: Wrecked sides seek redemption in another bout between young Indian captains

The Sunday night will offer a riveting contest between two sides hurting after a disastrous loss in their last game. The Delhi Capitals were submerged by poor death bowling while the Punjab Kings batsmen were blown up by a swinging Deepak Chahar in Mumbai. KL Rahul-led Kings will be more hurtful of their debacle with the bat against the Sunrisers as they could never get back in the game and the Super Kings defeated them comprehensively. On the other hand, the Delhi Capitals fought admirably with the ball and put the Rajasthan Royals under serious pressure before the Proteas duo David Miller and Chris Morris took the game away from them. But, the underlying issue that plagued the Capitals in their last game was their batting alone and hence when KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant walk down the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium tomorrow, they will look back towards their respective units with a hope that they will turn up leaving behind the debacle in the last game. The fearsome duo of Rabada-Nortje is back Misfortune of an apparent false Covid-19 test report delayed the return of South African pacer Anrich Nortje who along with his countryman was set to walk back in the XI. Both him and Rabada were superb throughout the tournament lasts season in the UAE and helped the Capitals’ campaign that ended only in the finals. Both Rabada and Nortje were was used as enforcers with the new ball last year before their role separating and Rabada was assigned the task of bowling at the death while Nortje was used as an enforced in the middle phase of the game. Rishabh Pant’s choices Rishabh Pant would be delighted with the return of Nortje in the camp, but it will equally test his leadership on the choices he will make just two days old into his captaincy in the IPL. In the last game, he dropped Shimron Hetmyer to play Kagiso Rabada and although Lalit Yadav arrested a collapse in the middle order, it could not match the value the West Indian left-hander could have brought with him. Hetmyer’s exclusion made the batting look a lot thinner with Chris Woakes and Tom Curran batting at seven, eighth position. Pant took a big punt on Tom Curran in order to maintain an incisive bowling attack. The move almost paid off well but another game for Curran seems unlikely with the return of Nortje. The left handed dasher also made a tactical blunder on the field in the last game by not bowling out R Ashwin for his complete quota of four overs. Coach Ricky Ponting conceded it was a mistake on the team’s tactical part. The captain who can’t do anything wrong this season with the bat will have to bring the best of his ideas to the forefront if the Capitals have to go a long way in this edition. Kings blowing hot and cold The Punjab Kings started their campaign on a dominating note with the likes of Deepak Hooda and the skipper Rahul himself going all guns blazing against the Royals. They also held their nerves to defend the target in the face of a brutal and magnificent counter-attacking innings from Sanju Samson. But, playing true to their legacy, Punjab imploded just in the very next game and were on the brink of a sub-hundred score against the Super Kings. Punjab were unlucky with one of the opener Mayank Agarwal getting an unplayable delivery from Deepak Chahar while Rahul paying the price of a crime Chris Gayle committed of risking a single against Ravindra Jadeja. The challenge will not be any simpler against the Capitals, and the top-heavy Kings will have to get their act together against the bowling attack comprised of Rabada, Nortje and Ravichandran Ashwin. The Kings have employed the tactics of going in with a thin batting line up with Jhye Richardson batting as high as number seven—a position he has never batted in his career. The move boomeranged on them in the last game where the lack of depth in batting was exposed brutally by the Super Kings. Delhi Capitals vs Punjab Kings: Match Details Match Number-11 Date and Time: April 18, 07:30 pm IST, 02: 00 pm GMT Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Broadcast and Live Stream: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and weather The pitches in the last two games have defied all the recent history of high-scoring games at the Wankhede Stadium. Both the last two games of these sides turned out to be low-scoring affairs, however, a proper contest between bat and ball would not be a matter of concerns for both the fans and the administrators. There was swing on offer for the new ball bowlers, especially at the start of the game between 7.30 PM to 8:00 PM period while as the ball got older, the surface started playing tricks and the bowler’s deception made batsmen paying for their mistakes of committing to strokes very early. The pitch in the game between the Capitals and the Kings is likely to be the same and so is the overhead conditions that aid swing bowling at the start. Both the sides have an impressive stock of pace bowlers to extract the best out of the surface and the air, and also quality batsmen in the top order to make it a contest to watch out for from the outset. Team News Delhi Capitals The Capitals will be rejoicing having Nortje back in the camp and most likely they will play both him and Rabada to get the best out of conditions in Mumbai. The move however will bring curtains to Tom Curran’s chances who was guilty of allowing Chris Morris to take the game away from the Capitals. However, the team management will be debating on who among the two of Shimron Hetmyer and Chris Woakes should be the fourth overseas player in the playing XI. Strongest XI Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan Punjab Kings The Punjab Kings need to relook their strategy of going in with specialists as it leaves them lacking in batting options in games where they have to endure collapse. Jhye Richardson should not be batting at the number seven position and they will have to make a choice on playing one of Riley Meredith or Jhye Richardson to bring someone like Moises Henriques who can bring a lot of balance in the playing XI. Strongest XI KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Shahrukh Khan, Moises Henriques, Jhye Richardson, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh DC vs PBKS: Dream XI fantasy team Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Chris Woakes, Marcus Stoinis, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Kagiso Rabada, Jhye Richardson Captain: KL Rahul Vice-captain: Rishabh Pant