The start of the IPL 2021 season has not been good for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The team had to face a 10-run defeat at the hands of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the first match. In addition to Kolkata’s excellent batting in this Hyderabad defeat, the setbacks in the initial overs were responsible. However, Johnny Bairstow (55) and Manish Pandey (61 not out) tried their part, but they did not succeed. After this defeat, questions are being raised on the batting of Hyderabad and especially Manish Pandey is the biggest target. Former India opener Virender Sehwag has made a very strong comment on this matter.
In this match, Hyderabad had lost the wickets of both of their offensive openers till the third over, but Bairstow and Manish kept the team alive and kept the expectations alive. Both scored half-centuries. Bairstow was out after scoring 55 runs, then more responsibility came on Manish Pandey, who was staying for a long time. He was expecting big innings in the end, but he could not do this work for the team.
Bairstow was dismissed on the last ball of the 13th over. At that time Manish Pandey was frozen by scoring 35 runs in 28 balls. The team needed 86 runs in the last 7 overs. In such a situation, Manish Pandey was expected to make big shots while playing more and more balls. Manish played only 16 balls after this, in which only 25 runs could come from his bat. In this too, 6 runs came from the sixes hit on the last ball of the match.
Manish Pandey scored 61 runs in 44 balls at a strike rate of 138. In comparison, Bairstow also scored 55 runs at a strike rate of only 137, but the difference was that Manish remained frozen till the end and he had a chance to increase the rate, in which he failed.
This kind of batting in Hyderabad surprised everyone and especially in Manish’s innings, things like lack of intention started happening. In this too, the most difficult question has been raised by former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who said without naming him that only the batsmen playing to improve their figures cause a loss to the team. Sehwag tweeted, saying “Such teams will always struggle in which only the batsmen who improve their stats will continue to play more overs without changing the speed. This gives the big hitters and finishers fewer balls to play and increases the difficulty for them. It happened last year too and such teams will always be in trouble. ”
Teams that will have stat padding batsmen end up batting long overs without changing gears quickly will struggle. Depriving hitters and finishers by leaving very less balls and making it very difficult. Happened last year, and such teams will struggle always #IPL
— Virrender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) April 11, 2021
The weakness or strength of the team cannot be concluded from the first match of the season, but this performance must have forced the Hyderabad team management to think. Hyderabad, of course, suffered the loss of both openers in the first 3 overs, but staying just 11 runs away from the goal suggests that the batsmen of the team could try a big shot in the middle with some bravery, as the team Had good hitters, who also showed up as Abdul Samad. Samad hit 19 runs in just 8 balls in the last. Hyderabad lost just 5 wickets and scored 177 runs and it was also clear that the batsmen did not try to take the required threat.
