SRH's night of mishaps in Ahmedabad

“In T20 cricket, you have to travel at such speeds that you’re going to come off the road occasionally,” Brendon McCullum mentioned about T20 cricket in the book Cricket 2.0. 

In IPL 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad has not only traveled at high speeds but also set the bar high for every other side that has ever played T20 cricket. But as McCullum mentioned — You’re going to come off the road occasionally. SRH suffered that off day in the Qualifier 1 of IPL 2024 where Kolkata Knight Riders thumped them by eight wickets and 38 balls to spare to book the first spot in the final. 

Opting to bat first was tactically not the brightest decision at a venue where four of the six league games were won by the chasing side. However, you can give SRH credit for being aggressive with their stronger suit — batting. And they had themselves to be blamed for their batting effort. 

Travis Head sort of recreated Brendon McCullum's dismissal against Mitchell Starc in the first over of the 2015 World Cup final. While aggression from Ball 1 had been their modus operandi, both batters were left bamboozled trying to hit balls that were not there to be hit. 

Soon 39/4, SRH fought back with a 62-run stand between Heinrich Klaasen and Rahul Tripathi but their hyper aggression eventually took them down. Klaasen, when he was beginning to get going, was holed out trying to pick up a rising delivery in the first over of Varun Chakaravarthy over square leg. Klaasen’s monstrous spin-hitting abilities aside, he could have waited for the weaker links in KKR’s line up instead of forcing a shot against the most successful spinner of the season. 

Soon after, Abdul Samad and Tripathi displayed clear inexperience in running between the wickets. Instead of waiting for the ball to get past the diving Andre Russell at backward point, both Samad (on strike) and Tripathi left their ends trying to steal a non-existent single. Consequently, Tripathi, batting 55 off 35 balls, was left stranded in the middle of the pitch. 

They tried to prolong their batting by using Sanvir Singh as their Impact Player but he was castled the first ball by Sunil Narine. Samad himself played more shots than his 16 off 12 balls would suggest. 

In the end, skipper Pat Cummins’ 30 off 24 balls dragged SRH to a total of 159 all out in 19.3 overs. It was something to fight with but still at least 50 runs short. 

With the ball, however, you could sympathize with Hyderabad’s bowling effort. One needs a lot of luck to defend such an underpar score with the added challenge of tackling the dew. And SRH had none of it. One could feel it in the number of mistimed strokes from the KKR batters that evaded the SRH fielders by a few inches. In the seventh over, a top edge from Narine went just over a leaping Klaasen.  

In the third over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar convinced his captain for a review on an unsuccessful lbw appeal against Narine. The Hawk Eye showed the ball to be pitching only millimeters outside the leg stump. Defending 160 on a 200 kind of track, SRH were out of their review after 13 balls into the innings. 

The replays later showed Cummins’ reaction at the Hawk Eye assessment. The hapless look was a consolation for the Indian fans who still haven’t recovered from losing the World Cup final to Cummins’ Australia in the World Cup final at the same venue. Defending an underpar total in conditions heavily influenced by dew with small margins making a difference with the ball, there were quite a few similarities between these two games. Except, Cummins was in the other camp this time. And had opted to bat first himself.

Hyderabad’s poor luck, layered with sloppiness, was summed up in the 10th over. Klaasen covered great distance to take a rebound catch from Shreyas Iyer's miscued paddle shot. However, Tripathi, running in from mid-wicket, collided with Klaasen. His legs hit Klaasen’s gloves, grassing SRH’s last opportunity to make a comeback. 

The first ball of the next over symbolized Head's disappointing night. One of Hyderabad’s biggest match-winners, Head was out for a second-ball duck. In the field, he dropped a bread-and-butter catch for a point fielder. He was later brought on to bowl two overs but by then, the game was long gone for him to stand any chance of resurrecting his fortunes, let alone the team. 

“You have those days in T20 cricket where things don't quite work out,” said skipper Cummins after the defeat. Such is T20 as a format. No matter if you are the best side in the tournament or a trailblazer, no one is immune to the uncertainty of T20 cricket. SRH would be glad to get it out of the way before a knockout game. 

“We are in the right to have one of those days and still win the tournament,” Cummins aptly summarized the remaining season for SRH. 

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