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

Warner top-scored with 37 but was uncharacteristically slow because of the nature of the pitch

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.