Sunrisers Hyderabad slumped to their second loss in a row as the Pat Cummins-led side was defeated by Delhi Capitals on Sunday. Despite having one of the most explosive batting lineups in IPL 2025, SRH were not able to cross the 200-run mark and DC ended up chasing the target with 7 wickets in hand. Indian cricket team batter Cheteshwar Pujara questioned Sunrisers’ approach in the competition following the loss and wondered if they have any Plan B if case their initial plan fails. In their last two matches, almost all SRH batters adopted an aggressive approach from the get go and Pujara believes that it was not the smart approach and asked for the side to show more consistency going forward.
“Firstly I was really surprised they chose to bat first (against DC). When you’re playing an afternoon game, you know that the pitch will be slightly on the slower side, that’s when you normally prefer to bowl and that’s an ideal time to bowl, not an ideal time to bat. I thought they should have bowled first. But talking about their batting, I think they go too hard and they were not smart enough today,” Pujara said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show.
“What is your success then. If you are just winning two out of 10, then it doesn’t make sense. You need to win more number of games. You need to show that consistency again and again. Last season we saw that they played brilliantly throughout the league phase but what if one game goes wrong for you in the knockouts, then you are not able to have a plan,” he added.
Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, believes wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen should have batted for a longer period and that the side needs one batter to take time to settle at the crease instead of going hard from the word go.
“Those are experiences that I hope they will be learning, even Pat Cummins who says ‘keep going hard’, as they go through the season. I look at Klaasen’s dismissal, I think even Heinrich should know his power and if he was to stay and bat a little bit deeper, he will score at a huge tempo.
“It’s still early in the season, but they (SRH) have got to start understanding that if Aniket gets going, we can spend some time there with him as deep as we bat and just soak it up just a little bit more. It’s not to consolidate for five-six overs, but it’s just maybe to manage for about three, four, five bowls, maybe even an over, we’re not talking consolidation for a long period,” he concluded.
(With IANS inputs)
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