SRH captain Cummins said a collapse like the one against DC “happens” with the high-risk approach his side takes
ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-20255:41
Do SRH’s batters lack a plan B?
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are known to go hard with the bat. That’s why they are expected to be the first team to score 300 in the IPL. Their method of attacking from the get-go got them a win in their opening match of IPL 2025. But they have lost two in a row since, the latest being a seven-wicket loss against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Vishakhapatnam. But SRH captain Pat Cummins believes that with the approach they have, “it happens”.SRH lost four wickets inside the powerplay and yet did not stop attacking. They were 58 for 4 after six overs, 105 for 4 after ten, and were bowled out for 163. That they reached there was thanks in large part to Aniket Verma, who hit a 41-ball 74.”We just never really got going,” Cummins said after the match. “Aniket gave us a score, but we lost a few early wickets. I think not all of them are bad shots. It happens. Obviously, a run-out and a couple [of batters] were caught on the fence, so yes, it happens.Related
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“I don’t think it’s big margins. On another day, you get going, you play one or two shots, and suddenly you’re into your innings. Not everything has gone our way in the last two games. Everything just about went our way in that first game. You review it, maybe there’s one or two options you could have done differently and the result looks a lot different.”One of the key battles ahead of the match was between Travis Head and Mitchell Starc, and DC captain Axar Patel’s move to give Starc a third over in the powerplay paid off.Mitchell Starc picked up his maiden T20 five-for•BCCI
“The plan [generally] is that I will bowl two overs [of Starc] at the start and two at the death,” Axar said. “But the situation was such that he was in rhythm, he had already given us two wickets, they [SRH] had lost three wickets. So I was thinking that in this over, I know what the opponent is going to do – they were going to attack. If we get a wicket, we could close the game. That was the plan and it was successful.”Coming into this game, Starc had dismissed Head five times in 42 balls for 24 runs across formats. Head began in the right manner today, hitting Starc for back-to-back fours in the opening over. But in Starc’s third over, Head gloved a ramp shot to a back-of-good-length offcutter to wicketkeeper KL Rahul.”I’ve played for long enough that I think guys obviously know what I’m trying to do,” Starc, the Player of the Match for his 5 for 35, said. “You’ve got to try and think of different ways or outside-the-box ways to be effective in T20 cricket these days. Even as an older player, you’ve still got to try and find new balls or find different ways to try and get batters out. It was nice to play a little bit of a different role.”I’m not sure there’s too many egos in the bowlers these days in T20 cricket,” he said. “It’s just you hang on for dear life sometimes. As a bowler, you have to think outside the box a lot more now with how the scores are trending and try and do things that you wouldn’t normally do and try and find a little bit of a leeway against these batters. It was nice to contribute in that way today.”
