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Following a loss against defending Champions Gujarat Titans on Monday, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Aiden Markram admitted that his team was not in the best form in this year's Indian Premier League.
After losing to GT by 34 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday, SRH have lost eight matches and is placed in the second-last position in the points table. They have won just four matches which made it difficult for them to qualify for Playoffs at this stage of the tournament. "We'll try to give some opportunities if we're allowed to. It'll be nice to finish off the tournament in good spirits but unfortunately, we haven't been good enough in the tournament this year. When a team is one down in the backend, it can go either of the two ways. It was important to break the partnership and Bhuvi did that for us. He's been exceptional for us and Nattu as well," Markram said. Aiden believed that they were in the game but losing four wickets in the powerplay was a major setback. "We were in the game at the halfway mark but when you lose four wickets in the powerplay, it becomes difficult. (On their bowling) We were slightly off, to be honest. We've got high-class bowlers who can swing the ball. Shubman's innings was incredible and so did their number three. We stuck in there and credit goes to Bhuvi to show us how it's done. (On Klaasen) He's a great player and I'm very happy for him, the world can see the class and power he's got. The rest of us haven't assisted him. It's tough for him to be on the losing side after performing the way he has. (On their remaining two games) A lot of pride for us to play for," he said in the post-match presentation. Batting first, GT posted 188/9 with the help of Shubman Gill's brilliant IPL century. Young batter Sai Sudharsan also played a knock of 47. Bhuvneshwar Kumar performed exceptionally well, picking up five wickets by conceding 30 runs. Fazalhaq Farooqi, T Natarajan and Marco Jansen took one wicket each. Chasing a total of 189, GT's opening bowling pair breathed fire in the opening pair as the duo of dismissed Anmolpreet Singh and Abhishek Sharma respectively. SRH got off to a poor start as they were 45/4 after the end of the powerplay. Heinrich Klaasen's fighting knock of 64 off 44 balls did not cross the total as from the other end wickets were falling at regular intervals. The SRH batting was restricted to 154/9, failing to chase down the total. Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma together picked eight wickets where they dismissed four batters each. Yash Dayal had also taken one scalp. Shubman Gill was awarded with "Player of the Match" for his blistering knock of 101 off 58 balls. (ANI)
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