Sunrisers Head Coach Brian Lara felt that SRH put up a strong fight but due to lack of consistent partnerships cost SRH the game. Mayank Agarwal scored 46 and 55 with skipper Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen respectively but Sunrisers lost wickets in quick successions and eventually lost.
“We were always in the game and I felt that the pitch was a 175-180 surface,” added Lara. “It spun and was a bit slow off the deck. To get 192 was a decent score for the Mumbai Indians. We tried to stay in the game but we lost wickets consistently throughout the chase and that obviously slowed us down. Good opportunity to learn. They played the better cricket today and came out on top”
However, Sunrisers didn’t get off to a flying start that they’d have liked and a poor powerplay meant that they had to play quickly in the middle overs. Lara, though, added that the side’s batting depth meant that they were always confident of compensating for the slow start as well.
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“It was difficult but we bat pretty deep. To have Bhuvi and Markhande at 10 and 11, and Sundar at 9, we felt that we were always in with a chance. Losing wickets always sets you back. New batsman in the middle will always take a couple of balls to set. So that’s something for us to think about. In both our wins, we had a set batter batting through. Doesn’t matter how deep your batting is, you have to see that the right batters take the opportunity,” Brian Lara again shared.
However, one of the major talking points even before the game started was SRH didn’t include pacer Umran Malik who had been a starter in nearly all the games since his debut as well.
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“We felt that the pitch had a bit of turn in it. Obviously we have a lot of options in terms of bowling first. It’s a very tricky situation because you want to save your impact player for batting, and that was Abdul Samad. I think we played the best team for the pitch and the opposition that were playing,” Brian Lara concluded.
Sunrisers’ next assignment will be against the Chennai Super Kings in Chennai on Friday (April 21).
