“We should have chased down that total comfortably” - SRH head coach Brian Lara laments batting failure

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Brian Lara expressed disappointment over the batters’ inability to chase down a total of 145 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Monday, April 24.

SRH succumbed to their third consecutive loss in IPL 2023, going down to DC by seven runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Chasing 145, they were held to 137/6.

In a post-match press conference, Lara put the onus of the defeat on the batters. He commented:

“We should have chased down that total comfortably. We are not going to use the excuse of low scores not being chased down. It’s fair to say our bowlers did a good job and our batters needed to do better.”

Admitting that their backs are to the wall, he added that it’s important for the team to regroup quickly. The West Indies legend commented:

“We should have won that game. But moving on, we have seven games left and everyone should know what the equation is. We’ve got to regroup quickly. Our backs are against the wall, and there is no doubt about that. We need to take more responsibility moving forward. It’s a challenge, but that’s life.”

SRH’s next match will also be against the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday, April 29.

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“I prefer if my batters are a bit more enterprising” - Brian Lara

Analyzing SRH’s performance against Delhi in detail, Lara urged the batters to be a bit more enterprising so they could take advantage of the powerplay restrictions. He elaborated:

“There were no devils in the pitch, and we could have been more proactive throughout the innings. We left everything too late. I prefer if my batters are a bit more enterprising and take advantage in powerplay. We allowed them to take wickets in the middle and cramp us."

SRH were 36/1 at the end of the powerplay and had crumbed to 85/5 by the start of the 15th over.

One of the few positives for Hyderabad from the game was Mayank Agarwal top-scoring with 49. On the decision to move Agarwal back to the top of the batting order, Lara explained:

“Mayank Agarwal moving down the order was not successful. He’s got a lot of years in the IPL, so he has that experience. We felt that we needed someone to hold the innings together. Few games ago, Abhishek [Sharma] had a nice knock at Kolkata batting at No. 5. We felt that we need that left-hander in the middle overs against spin."

Agarwal scored 49 off 39, but fell to Axar Patel in the 12th over, following which SRH lost their way in the chase.