New Delhi: Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Aiden Markram admitted they were 30-40 runs less after their loss against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium on Friday in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.
Opting bat, things didn’t pan out Sunrisers’ way as Krunal Pandya took the scalps of openers Anmolpreet Singh and Mayank Agarwal and skipper Aiden Markram. Rahul Tripathi was the top-scorer for the Sunrisers with 41-ball 35.
Veteran spinner Amit Mishra (2/23) took two wickets. In reply, LSG rode on knocks from Pandya (34) and skipper KL Rahul (35) to win the game in 16 overs with five wickets in hand.
“Not enough runs, tried to get to 150-160 but lost too many wickets and didn’t get any momentum going,” said Aiden
Markram, who was leading SRH for the first time in IPL. He had missed SRH’s first game due to national commitments.
Despite a low total, SRH bowlers put a decent show, picking up five LSG wickets. “We realized it wasn’t going to be a great wicket to bat in terms of history, but we were happy to fight. They bowled brilliantly according to the conditions.
“Good effort from our bowlers, we didn’t give them enough runs to play with but they fought hard,” added the South African, who was dismissed for a golden duck. On the other hand, Rahul said they knew how the pitch would behave and planned accordingly.
“Knew what we were getting into (nature of the pitch). Even when Jaydev bowled a few cutters, it was gripping. Was a no-brainer to bowl spin early. First instinct when I saw both pitches was that we’ll need to bat smartly here.
“We’ve adapted well as a batting unit. Each person plays very differently. Just have been a couple of chats with the batting group to help each other out. Good to see the players are going there and putting in the practice,” added the LSG captain.
SRH next play high-flying Punjab Kings on Sunday while LSG travel to Bengaluru to face Virat Kohli and Co the day after.
