Languishing in ninth place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) standings with half their league games behind them, last year’s finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have been exposed as something of a one-trick pony this year.
Their two victories came when they smashed 200+ runs at huge run rates on the flat decks that were prepared for them at home. Otherwise, in varied conditions and different match situations, when the option to smash every ball has not been open, Pat Cummins’ side have come up short just like they did in Mumbai on Thursday. On a slower-than-usual Wankhede pitch, SRH’s total of 162 was meagre and fell at least 20 runs short, and was chased by the Mumbai Indians with ease.
After the result, SRH coach Daniel Vettori would admit that the team must prepare to play in different kinds of conditions and come up with new strategies. “I feel like no-one really has control over their surface,” he said in his post-match press conference, per Cricbuzz. “So there’s a little bit of luck involved in terms of coming up against wickets that don’t suit us. But I think there has to be more to it from our side that we have to adapt.”
SRH are yet to make a 170+ total on a wicket outside Hyderabad, and even at home, against Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans, huge losses have come due to the fact their batting lineup has failed to fire on good batting wickets.
There is more than one way to win games, Vettori stresses. “We know that conditions like this exist in Chennai, sometimes Ahmedabad. So we’re not expecting to go around the country and come up on belters. So the ball’s in our court to realise that,” he said, before adding on Thursday’s result: “In general it was a difficult batting surface, and 180 maybe would have been a par score and something that could have challenged Mumbai, but I think the way that they navigated the middle period, particularly their six-hitting prowess, took the game away from us.”IPL 2025