Having started with the wins, Sunrisers Hyderabad suddenly lost some of their games in between. The ongoing season has been going on and off for them despite being considered one of the strongest sides of Indian Premier League (IPL). Their most of the wins came on the back of a strong opening partnership between David Warner and Jonny Bairstow. However, they have some strong bowlers in their squad like Rashid Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Bhuvneshwar Kumar etc. But anyone can have a bad day in the office and Rashid Khan is no different.
Being the key bowler of Hyderabad, it was expected that Rashid Khan would pull the things off for them during their last encounter against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, but he failed to restrict Shane Watson, who scored a blistering 96 off 53, including 9 boundaries and 6 sixes; which guided Chennai to a convincing six-wicket win in their 176-run chase.
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However, after the loss, Rashid Khan was backed by stand-in-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“It was a par score on that wicket. There was dew on the ground, but that didn’t really bother us. The way Watson batted we couldn’t really do much. This is probably the first off day for Rashid in three years, anyone can have an off day. The credit goes to Watson,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
In the game against Chennai Super Kings, Jonny Bairstow failed to contribute as he was dismissed for a two-ball duck off Harbhajan Singh. However, that was his last game for the franchise as he has left for his country in order to prepare for the upcoming World Cup. Though, stand-in captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar was confident about their next game against Rajasthan Royals (RR).
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“We will obviously miss Bairstow but we have players in the squad who can replace him. We have three away games now out of four and we have to win those games to qualify. We have to be our best to defeat RR. I have learnt a lot doing captaincy,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar expressed.
