IPL 2021: “Against good teams, you need to put together 40 good overs” - SRH coach Trevor Bayliss
Following Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)'s close six-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), coach Trevor Bayliss said that the team played good cricket for most of the game but failed to do so when it mattered most.
In a KKR-style meltdown, SRH came second best against RCB in Chennai on Wednesday, despite dominating the match for large swathes. They went into the last four overs needing 35 to win and eight wickets in hand. However, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed claimed three in an over to change the complexion of the game.
Speaking at a virtual press conference following SRH’s disappointing loss, their second in as many games in IPL 2021, Trevor Bayliss said that the team paid the price for not playing good cricket for a few overs. He said in this regard:
“We played some pretty good cricket for 35 of the 40 overs. Probably went for a bit too many in the last couple of bowling overs. Then obviously in the last three or four overs... the over where we lost three wickets, was obviously some poor cricket. Some poor decision-making. We have just got to do better in the coming games. As I said, we played some pretty good cricket for 35 overs. But against such good teams, you need to put together 40 good overs.”
After SRH lost three wickets in the 17th over, the pressure kept mounting. Vijay Shankar (3), Jason Holder (4), Rashid Khan (17) and Shahbaz Nadeem (0) all perished quickly as SRH were restricted to 143 for 9, chasing 150.
SRH should have countered pressure by playing good shots: Trevor Bayliss
Trevor Bayliss said that SRH’s loss was the result of some poor cricket in the end overs, both while batting and bowling. After having RCB on the mat for most of their innings, SRH allowed them to reach close to 150 by bowling some boundary balls at the end.
Bayliss observed in this regard:
“Obviously, when you keep a team down to under 150, you would like to think you are going to win more times than you lose. But our batting in that last third of the match was fairly poor. There was some good bowling, obviously. But we should have countered the pressure by playing some good strong cricket shots and taking the ones and twos and putting the pressure back on the opposition".
Trevor Bayliss continued:
“We tried to get the game done and over within a short space of time. In T20 cricket, you have always got a little bit of more time than you really think. If you look at the end result, we lost by six or seven runs. If we hadn’t lost out better batters in that over, where we lost three wickets, it might have been a different story. It wasn’t, so we have got to go away and regroup. Stay nice and positive and move on to the next match".
Shabaz Ahmed starred with the ball, claiming three wickets in an over. But allrounder Glenn Maxwell, who scored his first IPL fifty in five years, was named the Man of the Match for playing a match-defining innings.