CHENNAI: Sunrisers Hyderabad have a top six which, on paper, is as good as any other team in the Indian Premier League, but that hasn’t reflected in results so far. They are yet to fire collectively as a batting unit, which has cost them multiple games this season. After the setback against Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad head coach Brian Lara felt that losing wickets in the powerplay is something they need to take a look at.
‘’Losing wickets always sets you back. In a couple of victories, we had, we had an opener batting through. Doesn’t matter how deep you bat, you want to make sure the right batters are getting the opportunity to score runs and we didn’t take that opportunity in this match against Mumbai,” Lara said on Tuesday.
While their middle-order — Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen — is a dynamic one, they haven’t been able to finish matches for the team, something that’s a big concern. “It’s (SRH middle-order) a work in progress. We need to have guys who are thinking to take the game till the end. There are some great examples in IPL, (Rahul) Tewatia, (David) Miller. We do need that sort of person to understand how to calculate, who are the bowlers still to come and plan properly. We have been working on that,’’ said Lara.
“We seemed to be losing too many wickets in the power play throughout the five games we have played. That means you are always trying to play catch-up, trying to consolidate the situation to get better. We will have to improve in that area,” added the former West Indian captain, hoping that his team can come up with an improved performance against Chennai Super Kings in Chennai on Friday.