IPL 2017 Eliminator: 5 Things that went wrong for SRH against KKR

It was a knock-out match, the eliminator, between third-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad and fourth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders. The winners would go on to play Mumbai Indians in a virtual semi-final. The losers would go home. Everything was at stake for the two skippers.

Gautam Gambhir won the toss for KKR and asked SRH to bat. It was too big a toss to lose as rain had been predicted, pretty much amplifying the ill-effects of SRH’s woeful batting and making it easy for KKR to win by D/L. Here, we take a look five things that went wrong for SRH.

#1 Slow start by the openers

It was one of the slowest starts for SRH despite the dynamic duo of Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner at the crease. Warner hit an uncharacteristically slow 37 off 35 balls at a strike-rate of 105.71. Dhawan scored 11 off 13 before nicking one to Uthappa off Umesh Yadav’s bowling.

Sunrisers were on 30 for 1 at the end of the power-play, which was terribly low even for an ODI game, let alone a T20 game. This had a lot to do with KKR’s fiery new-ball bowling handled by Yadav and Trent Boult. Things never got easier with Nathan Coulter-Nile coming back from injury and producing another sensational bowling spell.

#2 Losing two big wickets back-to-back

Kane Williamson tried to give Warner company but was never fluent

Even in a T20 match, one batsman is expected to anchor and hang on till the end. Warner, the big match player and the most prolific run-scorer this season, could have been that man for SRH. But it wasn’t to be. He got a back of length, flat ball from Piyush Chawla that he tried to play on the back foot and missed. The skidding delivery castled his stumps.

That was just two balls after Kane Williamson threw away his start by hitting a good length delivery straight to extra cover, largely because of the lack of pace on the pitch.

The two big wickets broke SRH’s back and it was never easy for the new batsmen to get quick runs especially with the bowling line-up of KKR that had- Narine, who bowled 4 overs and gave away 20, Coulter-Nile, who had the same figures along with three wickets and Umesh Yadav, who had figures of 2-21 in 4 overs.

#3 Middle order didn’t fire

Yuvraj Singh didn’t click either and fell before the final onslaught could be launched

SRH were undone by the poor showing of their middle order. Coulter-Nile went for 13 runs in his second over, the 10^th of the innings (4-0-20-3 overall) but just when SRH seemed to be putting on a partnership, they lost Williamson and Warner, within the span of three deliveries. SRH never recovered from 75 for 3 in the 13^th over, losing Yuvraj Singh in the 16^th.

Yuvraj managed only a 9-ball 9 while Naman Ojha had an equally unimpressive strike-rate, scoring 16 off 16 balls. Vijay Shankar had the highest strike-rate of all, pushing the total to 128 with a 17-ball 22.

Nevertheless, on a slow wicket (re-laid recently), SRH never really got the momentum going. 128 was never going to be enough against an extremely strong KKR batting line-up. SRH hit only 9 fours and 5 sixes on a small Chinnaswamy ground.

#4 Rain

The rain certainly didn’t help SRH’s cause

Rain is never good news in cricket. It turned out to be bad news for SRH. Had the match been washed out completely, SRH would have gone on to qualify because of their higher position. KKR deserved to win because of their lovely bowling and the rain gods showed mercy.

The match was delayed by more than two hours. Nevertheless, KKR had a paltry target of 48 to chase in 6 overs, according to D/L, which was a walk in the park. SRH had no chance of saving the match once the rain abated and KKR had an opportunity to bat, no matter how good their bowling was.

#5 Incompatible strategy for a slow pitch

Gambhir marshalled his resources brilliantly and was also cool with the bat, proving the better skipper

During the presentation ceremony, Warner pointed out how the pitch was on the slower side with the ball not coming on to bat well, uncharacteristic of the Chinnaswamy pitch, especially since it was relaid.

Gambhir pointed to how it is not the track to go for a score of 180, and 150 was more of a par-score. It became slightly easier for KKR to bat after the rain, with the pace improving.

SRH couldn’t really get going given both their openers, Warner and Dhawan like pace on the ball. Despite beefing up their team with Williamson, SRH couldn’t get the move on and that slow pace cost them the game. The presence of Moises Henriques instead of Chris Jordan could have helped too.