Former India batsman reckons rotating strike on a slow wicket is what Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to do in their 13-run loss to Mumbai Indians.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's Jonny Bairstow en route his 22-ball 43 against Mumbai Indians during an IPL match at Chennai on Saturday. Pic/PTI
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mentor VVS Laxman admitted that his batsmen failed to rotate the strike and relied on boundaries during their 13-run loss to Mumbai Indians (MI) in an IPL-14 encounter at Chennai on Saturday night.
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The defeat saw SRH suffer their third consecutive loss and are placed at the bottom of the table.
Chasing a target of 151 on a slow Chepauk strip, SRH were bundled out for 137 in 19.4 overs. Captain David Warner (36 in 34 balls, 2x4, 2x6) and Jonny Bairstow (43 in 22 balls, 3x4, 4x6) put on an opening stand of 67 before Bairstow was out hit wicket. SRH suffered a collapse similar to their previous six-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), to snatch defeat from jaws of victory. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (4-0-19-3) and pacer Trent Boult (3.4-0-28-3) were the pick of the bowlers for MI.
SRH mentor VVS Laxman
Earlier, Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 22-ball 35 powered MI to 150-5 in 20 overs.
“It [rotating strike] is a very important skill on pitches like these where it is difficult to hit through the line and you can’t just rely on boundaries and sixes. It is important to keep the dot ball percentage low and the only way you can do that is by rotating the strike,” VVS Laxman said at the post-match press conference on Saturday night.
He added: “It is one aspect of the game which is important on such wickets and unfortunately we were not able to do that when Chahar was bowling or even when the pacers were bowling in the middle overs. And it is one aspect which is critical if you have to put pressure back on the opposition.”
The former India batsman stressed that batting aggressively in the Powerplay is crucial on such wickets. “As the ball gets older in the second half of the innings, it is getting tougher to play the big shots as the ball is stopping on the wicket which is two-paced. Also the spinners are extracting turn along with bounce. It is one aspect which we definitely discussed if you see the way Jonny Bairstow and David Warner capitalised on the Powerplay,. It will be very important going forward especially when you are playing on slow tracks like in Chennai; use the Powerplay restrictions so that the players coming later on are under less pressure,” said Laxman.
Laxman further remarked that one set batsman needs to bat through the innings to ease pressure on the newcomers.
“It is also important for one set batsman to play through the innings as it is very difficult for a newcomer to get used to the surface straightaway especially when the required run-rate is climbing,” he said.
Laxman revealed that pacer Natarajan was left out due to an injury, but said his replacement- left-arm pacer Khaleel - was impressive on the slow surface.
“Natarajan was ruled out due to a sore left knee so we played Khaleel who impressed with the way he bowled in the first game of the season. He assessed the conditions really well and used a lot of his variations along with extracting a lot of pace and bounce from the surface. We will continue to assess Natarajan and take the right decision as to when to play him,” he explained.
Despite three defeats, Laxman insisted that it was important to not only highlight the shortcomings but also to look at the positives.
“It is just the start of the tournament and we would have liked to have the winning momentum on our side but having said that, it is very important to introspect in a constructive manner and there is no point brooding over the result. Everyone is disappointed as they want to win matches for the team, but it is about analysing the good things and also about addressing the shortcomings and not repeating it in the following matches,” he said.
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