Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 26 : Following his side's 35-run loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori said that he does not expect the players to win every game of the tournament.
While speaking at the post-match press conference, Vettori said that the Sunrisers openers, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, had an off day against RCB. He added that it was a tough loss against against the Bengaluru-based franchise.
"We also know that it's been set up by the openers, and today they had an off day, and that's cricket, and you have off days. We don't expect them to perform 14 games, and unfortunately, we didn't get support in the middle stages. It's a tough loss, but we understand that every team in the IPL can beat every team, there are no easy games at all," Vettori said.
The head coach further added that they were confident while taking RCB because of their performance in previous matches of the tournament.
"Obviously we were confident because of the scores we were able to put up. We thought that 206 was a good score, there was a real confidence in the group because of past performances," he added.
Recapping the match, RCB won the toss and elected to bat first. Skipper Faf Du Plessis (25) and Virat Kohli got the team off to a blazing start in the powerplay. After a slowdown post-powerplay, Rajat Patidar (50) injected life into the RCB's innings. Virat was dismissed for 51 in 43 balls, with four boundaries and a six and failed to capitalise on his fine start during the powerplay. Despite some quick wickets, cameos from Cameron Green (37*) and Swapnil Singh (12*) took RCB to 206/7 in their 20 overs.
Jaydev Unadkat (3/30) and T Natrajan (2/39) were the top bowlers for SRH. Pat Cummins and Mayank Markande took a wicket each.
In the run-chase, SRH kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Except for Abhishek Sharma (31), none of the previous heroes for SRH, be it Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, or Nitish Reddy made an impact. Skipper Cummins (31) and Shahbaz Ahmed (40) did put up a fight, but SRH was skittled out for 171 in their 20 overs.
Green (2/12) and Karn Sharma (2/29) were the top bowlers for RCB. Swapnil Singh also took two wickets for 40 runs. Will Jacks and Yash Dayal also got a wicket each.
RCB is at the bottom of the points table with two wins, seven losses and four points. SRH is at the third spot with five wins, three losses and 10 points.