Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals have been well and truly knocked out from the race to the Playoffs of IPL 2023. For both teams, it’s the performance of India batters which never allowed their campaign to get on track. If Delhi were let down by Prithvi Shaw (47 runs in 6 innings), Manish Pandey (160 runs in 9 innings), Aman Khan (103 runs in 8 innings) and Sarfaraz Khan (53 runs in 4 innings), SRH didn’t get the ideal contributions from Mayank Agarwal (187 runs in 9 innings) and Abdul Samad (168 runs in 8 innings).
These Indian players have failed to make an impact on their franchises. The kind of impact Rahul Tripathi has had over the years in the cash-rich league but even he blew hot and cold with 258 runs in 12 innings. SRH opener Abhishek Sharma was promising at the top of the order but only 215 runs in 10 innings doesn’t make a good reading. Not that the overseas players from the two eliminated sides have set the stage on fire but a lot rides on the Indian core in conditions which are more suited to them. The teams which have enjoyed decent contributions from their Indian batting group continue to remain alive in the very intense race to the Playoffs which has now entered the home stretch.
Confusion galore
SRH have looked like a confused camp this season. Even with a star-studded support staff featuring Brian Lara and Dale Steyn, the Aiden Markaram-led side is yet to figure out the right XI and the musical chairs continued throughout the season. They tried accommodating Harry Brook, who was all at sea in the middle-order, at the top of the order and the right-hander repaid the faith with a 55-ball 100 but managed just 63 runs in the other eight innings (across middle and top order). Brook’s promotion meant Abhishek Sharma, one of their most successful batter last year, was briefly pushed down the order before sense prevailed and he was back as an opener.
SRH then paired Abhishek with his Punjab teammate Anmolpreet Singh at the top of the order but that move too hasn’t paid immediate returns.
Like Delhi, SRH’s bowling has made them look competitive this season and the show by Heinrich Klaasen lower down the order has kept them interested.
SRH head coach Lara echoed similar views after his side’s loss to Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad and credited the bowlers for keeping the fight alive in what has been a disappointing season.
“Credit must be given to our bowlers, they have had a tremendous season. They have kept us in all the games we have played and credit must be given to them. At one point, it looked like the score will be above 200 and we have seen them (bowlers) do the work to get us back in the game," said Lara at the post-match presser.
The former West Indies skipper was all praise for Klassen.
“Klassen again has to be given credit. He has been tremendous throughout the season. Many times playing a lone hand. Today was another exceptional innings. I sit in the dugout and never lose hope when Klassen is out there. We have to hold our hands up as a batting unit and know that it wasn’t a very good batting performance," said Lara.
The franchise pressed reboot ahead of the mini-auction and paid a lot of money to secure the services of Brooks (13.25 crores) & Agarwal (8.25 crores) but continue to struggle and occupy the second-last spot in the points table with just four wins from 12 games. Lara asserted that as a batting unit, SRH were “unable to match up to what is expected".
“At the big auction (mega-auction), we had a new-looking team and last year we ran eight and had our problems with the bat. We went into the auction (mini-auction) to get some players, a slightly different look and approach. The likes of Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi, who scored in excess of 400 runs last year, find themselves struggling a bit this year. It’s not just one or two players. Not just the Indian players. I feel as a unit we were unable to match up to what is expected. If you look on paper, I would say this is a respectable batting lineup. We just weren’t able to come to the party enough times to find ourselves maybe in the top four," said Lara.
DC’s tame surrenders
For Delhi, too, it’s been a very ordinary season with the bat as they have staged tame surrenders one game after another. Ever since Rishabh Pant was ruled out due to injury, the DC camp continued to wear an unsettled look. May it be the stop-gap arrangement of Sarfaraz behind the stumps or the late signing of Abhishek Porel, who played only four games and could only manage 33 runs.
It was surprising to see the side hold trials of sorts for Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyam Garg at the Arun Jaitley Stadium when Kamlesh Nagarkoti was ruled out of the season due to an injury. Both Easwaran and Garg are quality cricketers but aren’t the biggest strikers of the cricket ball and DC would have been better off giving more games, at a stable number, to the existing lot rather than mid-season signing of Garg, who was back on the bench after 22 runs from two innings.
DC’s Indian batters Pandey, Shaw and Sarfaraz had very good domestic seasons but the trio wasn’t able to replicate the same in the IPL. The management ran out of patience with both Shaw and Sarfaraz but was left with no option but to persist with Pandey in the middle-order, where all the heavy lifting is being done by Axar Patel (268 runs in 12 innings), and went heavy with overseas batters at top.
That little change in the order was looking good before the Warner-led unit staged an epic collapse in their last league game vs Punjab Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The openers Warner and Salt, chasing 168, put on 69 in just 6.1 overs before the Englishman’s wicket opened the floodgates. The hosts were reduced to 86/5 in just 9.1 overs and eventually fell short of the target by 31 runs. The likes of Marsh, Rossouw & Pandey looked clueless and were trapped in the spin web by Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar.
Ricky Ponting, the team’s head coach, was aggressively chewing the gum when wickets fell in a pack and the rest of the support staff, including Sourav Ganguly, Pravin Amre, James Hopes and Shane Watson wore a very disappointed look.
“It’s been a poor season. It’s been a really poor season. Our bowling has been okay but we have managed to bat well only twice (against SRH and RCB) in 12 games. That’s probably not good enough in the IPL season to be anywhere close to the finals," said Hopes after DC vs PBKS fixture.
“Throughout the season, we haven’t had a young player who played the innings of the substance that we played today (Prabhsimran Singh’s hundred). We probably expected more from some of those guys and it hasn’t panned out that way," he added.
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