CRICKET POLL

Daniel Vettori, the head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad, admitted that the attempt to maximise the powerplay backfired for his side against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday, as they were handed their sixth defeat of the season.

On a surface where there was some movement on offer with the new ball, Sunrisers Hyderabad were caught on the backfoot against Mumbai Indians' new-ball pair of Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult, as they picked a brace each to 13 for 4 within the fifth over.

Vettori believes the toss played an important factor as the pitch for Wednesday's game was different from those in other matches in Hyderabad.

"I think obviously, the toss was important. We wanted to bowl first because the conditions were vastly different, [it was a different] wicket to the previous ones. I mean, we've discussed that it's a 280, 250 wicket. So conditions changed dramatically. So to be able to get that assessment early around what a par score was, is obviously difficult.

"When you go in there early on, you're trying to obviously maximise that power play. And unfortunately, we weren't able to, and we kept losing wickets. Once we realised that the surface wasn't what we anticipated, then we needed to build towards that sort of 180 score. That, unfortunately, is difficult to do when you're 24 for four after the power play."

The inability to read the conditions and adapt quickly proved disastrous for SRH yet again. By the time they could alter from their ultra-aggressive approach, they were already reduced to 35 for 5 in the ninth over.

"Once we got through that, maybe two overs, the assessment was that it was not the 250-260 wicket that this has been the last couple of games. And we obviously went out of depth. I mean, the dismissal of Ishan is obviously disappointing and that puts pressure on everyone coming in.

"When you're in a powerplay situation, you still want to try and maximise those two fielders out. So there's still some emphasis or onus on the batsmen that are there to try and score some runs. And today was very unfortunate that they couldn't get it done.

"Understanding what a good score is, what a par score is and being able to set that up. Travis and Abhi [Abhishek Sharma], when they go, they're very aggressive and they take the game on and it's led to a lot of success for us. When they don't succeed, then it's the responsibility of the other batsmen. And potentially that's what we haven't had this season, around the ability for partnerships, for one or two guys to step up in games. We got two today, but it was just a little bit too late for us.

Nonetheless, Vettori credited the contributions of Heinrich Klaasen and Abhinav Manohar for the duo's 99-run stand, which laid the foundation of SRH's eventual score of 143 for 8. Even as the total was well below par and chased down with 4.2 overs to spare, it provided SRH with an opportunity to fight.

With eight games done in the league stage so far for SRH, they have only two wins to their credit. However, Vettori is still hopeful and looking to seek inspiration from Royal Challengers Bengaluru to stage a comeback this season.

"IPL has been going a long time and there's been a lot of teams find themselves in this situation. And there's been a few teams that have been able to resurrect their seasons. And you look back to RCB last year after a difficult start. So if we can take some inspiration, it's from a team like them.

"Mumbai has done it on a few occasions, but ultimately it's going to take one performance. And we just haven't been able to put a collective performance together, bar the two games that we've won. So we're going to have to improve dramatically in all three facets."