Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered their 3rd straight loss in IPL 2019 and 2nd at their homeground at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad when they lost to Delhi Capitals by a margin of 39 runs.
After winning the toss and opting to bowl, Sunrisers batsmen found themselves chasing a decent total of 156 runs, Sunrisers Hyderabad were cruising at one stage with the score at 100/2 around 15 overs with David Warner and Ricky Bhui at the crease, When Keemo Paul struck by getting Bhui caught by Axar Patel and the score was 101/3 at 15.2 overs with Sunrisers needing 55 runs of 28 balls with Warner still at the crease. Not one cricket fan watching this match could had predicted what was to follow next – Sunrisers Hyderabad’s middle order yet again suffered a dramatic collapse and lost their last eight wickets for just 15 runs, the worst eight-wicket collapse in IPL history, to lose their third successive game this season and handling Delhi Capitals a much needed win which placed Delhi at second position in the IPL 2019 team standings.
Keemo Paul got the Man of the match award for his bowling figures of 3/17 which included the wickets of Bairstow, Kane Williamson and Ricky Bhui, while Kagiso Rabada accounted for the dismissal of David Warner which turned the match completely in favour of Delhi Capitals.
For Sunrisers Hyderabad this loss against Delhi Capitals was eerily similar to their earlier loss at home ground against Mumbai Indians in which Sunrisers Hyderabad had also won the toss and opted to bowl and a late slog by Kieron Pollard enabled Mumbai to post a par total of 136 and Alzarri Joseph announced his arrival in IPL 2019 with an inspired spell in which he picked up the best bowling figures recorded in IPL history till date with figures of 6/12 which got him the man of the match award and saw Sunrisers suffer a middle order batting collapse which led to them losing the match by 40 runs.
In yesterday’s match against Delhi Capitals, The top scorers for Sunrisers Hyderabad were David Warner with 51 runs and Jonny Bairstow with 41. Against Mumbai chasing 137, the top scorers were Hooda (20 runs) followed by Bairstow (16) and Warner (15). The batsmen who played at Positions 3 to 7 had a combined score of only 16 runs against Delhi and against Mumbai, Positions 3 to 7 had a combined score of 52 runs.
One of the prime reasons for the middle order batting collapse in yesterday’s match was also the fact that Sunrisers team made 4 changes to their playing 11.
Captain Kane Williamson replaced Mohammed Nabi, Sunrisers also made three other changes that saw experienced players like Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey getting the axe for their poor form. In their place, the new replacements Ricky Bhui and Abhishek Sharma also failed to capitalize on the given opportunities with the bat. While Bhui made only 7 off 12 deliveries in his torrid little stay, Abhishek was dismissed by Chris Morris for a 3-ball 2.
This definitely raises questions for the Sunrisers team and management on a number of reasons:
Reason 1 – Why opt to bowl on a slow wicket ? Despite winning the toss and restricting Mumbai Indians to 136 runs, Sunrisers middle order batsmen struggled to time the ball while chasing and lost their wickets in trying to go for the big shots to match the high asking run rate.
This similar pattern was again at display in yesterday’s match which saw the middle order yet again collapsing by playing rash shots to match the towering run rate.
Could this had been avoided if they would had batted first which then could had allowed Warner and Bairstow to bat with full flow and freedom and allow them to place a good defendable score.
Reason 2 – Axing of 2 important senior players? Even David Warner acknowledged in his post match interview Warner revealed that it was a decision taken by the team management, which he is no longer part of. “I don’t like hindsight,” Warner said when asked if it was one change too many. “Today, there was a decision that they (the team management) made. I’m no longer part of that process, I don’t know what their thinking was – but when you lose that experience in the middle, it can be quite challenging and quite difficult for the new guys that come in. But there is no excuses – we got off to a good start, we didn’t capitalise on those middle periods, there were a lot of ones, not many twos, they shut down the boundaries well and they bowled very well. We just missed a couple of opportunities to hit boundaries through that middle period.”
This 3rd straight loss for Sunrisers means that they find themselves with 6 points on 6th Position after playing 7 matches.It will be tough for Sunrisers as their next 2 matches are against Chennai Super Kings on 17th April and Kolkata Knight Riders on 21st April on their homeground in Hyderabad, and if you are fan of betting with online betting sites in Australia.
There are also other top online casino reviews that you can check if you need to place sports bets and if you are brave to bet on Sunrisers winning their next 2 matches at home because of their middle order batting woes and Kane Williamson and coaching staff have a big task on hand to solve their batting problem quickly else they can slide further down which then could mean an exit for the Sunrisers Hyderabad from the IPL 2019 play-offs.
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