IPL 2021: 3 bowling takeaways for SRH against KKR
SRH were expensive in their first game of IPL 2021 against KKR in Chennai on Sunday (April 11). The famed bowling line-up was dismantled by Nitish Rana (80 off 56) and Rahul Tripathi (53 off 29) as the duo took the bowlers to the cleaners.
David Warner marshaled his resources wisely, but was pegged on the backfoot after Rana and Tripathi's knocks along with a cameo by Dinesh Karthik (22 off 9) saw KKR amass 187 in their 20 overs.
The surface wasn't tricky, but at the same time, there was not much of swing for SRH's bowlers to prey upon and this meant carnage when they erred on width, which they did.
Let's take a look at the takeaways from SRH's bowling against KKR
#1 Straying in line and length
An error that proved costly. SRH's swing kings Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Sandeep Sharma were the most expensive, giving away 45 and 35 runs respectively from their four-over quotas.
Vijay Shankar's medium pace was meant to slow down the pace at which Rana and Tripathi were going, but he was taken to the cleaners giving away 14 runs.
#2 Spin pulled SRH back in the game
Rashid Khan and his fellow journeyman Mohammad Nabi each picked up two wickets to get SRH back in the game after KKR had raced off to 150 by the 15th over.
Rashid was instrumental as he got the better of Andre Russell, while Nabi got red of the ominous-looking Rana and Eoin Morgan to stem the flow of runs.
That said, they couldn't stop Karthik as he smacked two fours and a six in his nine-ball knock.
#3 Should SRH have given Vijay Shankar another over?
Chennai's slow track meant less support to bowlers who nipped the ball around and Shankar, despite being expensive, could have had another go as it may have forced the batsmen to commit more mistakes. However, Warner went with Bhuvneshwar, who gave away 15 runs in the final over.
What does this mean for SRH?
They had an off day and will be keen to make amends when they return on Wednesday (April 14) to take on RCB at the same venue. SRH might go with the same squad, dismissing their opening affair as a bit of an aberration.
Bhuvi and Sandeep along with Rashid have enjoyed considerable success against RCB and will look to hit hard lengths and get back to form. They are still one of the better bowling units in the league and only time will tell if they will correct their mistakes in the next game.