Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are eyeing their first win in the ongoing extended edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being humbled by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) who defeated the former by five wickets in Lucknow on Friday. The decision to bat first on the away pitch backfired completely for SRH who were carried away by the LSG spinners, especially Krunal Pandya.
Pandya scalped three wickets in his four overs and conceded just 18 runs. Of those three, two came in consecutive deliveries when SRH opener Anmolpreet Singh was trapped LBW for 31 off 26 balls. Krunal then cleaned up SRH skipper Aiden Markram in the next ball, a point which Brian Lara also highlighted as the turning point of the match.
Ravi Bishnoi and veteran Amit Mishra also contributed significantly as SRH could only muster 121/8 in 20 overs. Lucknow chased quite comfortably and closed the match with four overs to spare.
Analyzing the match on his YouTube channel ‘Harbhajan Turbanator Singh’, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh made a bold claim about SRH’s batting potential. The former cricketer believes the unit does not have the firepower to put up even 170 on the board.
“I don’t think SRH have a batting unit that can score 170-190. If Markram doesn’t score, the task becomes more difficult. Tripathi is a skilful player and there is no doubt about that, but he doesn’t.” I haven’t done anything significant with the bat so far this season. Maybe he could score in the next season.” said Harbhajan.
Harbhajan also praised KL Rahul’s captaincy but at the same time termed the match as “boring”.
“It was great captaincy by Rahul. No big shots needed to be played in the chase. He played an innings of 35 runs and Krunal took one of 34 runs. It was an easy 2 points for Lucknow. The match was very boring and there was no fun, not enough points, the wicket was very slow and forced SRH to surrender the batting,” he said.
SRH will now take on Punjab Kings on Sunday while Lucknow will face Royal Challengers Bangalore the next day.
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