2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by SRH in their IPL 2023 match vs LSG
The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered a massive dent in their playoff hopes in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) as they went down to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by seven wickets on Saturday, May 13.
Batting first, the home side made 182/6 even though none of their batters crossed the 50-run mark. Five Lucknow bowlers were amongst the wickets, with Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad featuring in an excellent partnership.
LSG were behind the eight ball for more than half of their chase, but splendid innings from Prerak Mankad, Nicholas Pooran, and Marcus Stoinis saw them over the line in the final over. The Orange Army were left to rue their strategies in the contest, which they were in control of for large parts.
Here are two mistakes and one masterstroke made by SRH in their IPL 2023 match against LSG.
#3 Mistake - SRH didn't use their impact player against LSG
SRH had neither Kartik Tyagi nor Umran Malik in their impact subs list. If they needed an extra pacer for the second innings, inexperienced all-rounders Sanvir Singh and Nitish Reddy were their only options.
Hyderabad instead went with Vivrant Sharma, who made his debut for the franchise in the previous game and sent down two overs. Strangely, though, they didn't even use the young leg-spinner against LSG. Three other spinners bowled for the Sunrisers, who didn't need Vivrant's services.
Had SRH kept either Tyagi or Umran in the subs, they would've had some additional cushion. Having brought Vivrant in, however, they really should've given him a bowl.
#2 Masterstroke - Hyderabad's powerplay bowling was excellent
Many were of the opinion that SRH would immediately target Kyle Mayers and Quinton de Kock with some part-time off-spin in Aiden Markram and Glenn Phillips.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar got some appreciable movement in the first over, though, coaxing Markram into bringing on Fazalhaq Farooqi from the other end. The left-armer duly delivered a superb over to pile the pressure on Mayers, who never got going.
Phillips was eventually brought on and he prised out Mayers. SRH closed out the powerplay well as well, with T Natarajan and Farooqi keeping things fairly tight in the final two overs.
LSG managed only 30 runs in the powerplay while losing Mayers and took quite some time to recover from the early setback.
#1 Mistake - Aiden Markram didn't bowl his spinners out earlier
Including himself, Markram had a plethora of spin options at his disposal. However, he didn't bowl them out soon enough and was forced into bowling one over of Abhishek Sharma at the death, which proved to be terribly costly.
With De Kock at one end, Markram could've brought himself on in one of the last two overs of the powerplay. He opted for pace instead, exhausting five overs of his fast-bowling trio in the first six overs. The SRH skipper rotated his quicks in the middle overs when he really didn't need to as well.
Abhishek was the best option in the 16th over with two right-handers at the crease, but the spinners should've been out of the way by then. The over cost 31 runs as Stoinis and Pooran hammered five sixes to effectively seal the game.