IPL 2024: ‘We don’t expect them to perform 14 games’ – Daniel Vettori on SRH openers

Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori admitted the team’s think tank doesn’t expect the openers – Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma – to perform in all 14 league stage matches of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024.

Head was dismissed after scoring a solitary run against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday. The Australian was cleaned up by part-time spinner Will Jacks in the first over of the innings when SRH was chasing 207 runs.

Furthermore, Abhishek Sharma continued to bat aggressively despite losing his opening partner early. But the youngster was also dismissed after scoring 31 runs off 13 balls by Yash Dayal.

“Obviously we were confident because of the scores we were able to put up,” Vettori said after the game. “We thought that 206 was a good score, there was a real confidence in the group because of past performances.

“We also know that it’s been set up by the openers and today they had an off day and that’s cricket and you have off days. We don’t expect them to perform 14 games and unfortunately we didn’t get the support in the middle stages. It’s a tough loss but we understand that every team in the IPL can beat every team, there are no easy games at all.”

The former New Zealand captain admitted it is not prudent to play an anchor role when the team is chasing 207 runs. SRH batters have been batting aggressively with rich rewards but they were restricted to 171-8 by RCB.

“The guys who came off all said that it was a surface that you could score on,” he pointed out. “Anchor roles when you are chasing 207 is hard to do. Obviously need to be aggressive, 10 an over means you need two boundaries so for someone to settle in and play an anchor role is a little bit tricky but it’s certainly something we will look at.

“We have been successful setting totals and now we have to look at our way of chasing. We come up against a really good team in Chennai so I suppose for us is removing ourselves from this game and understanding that the Chepauk wicket could be different and we may have to go about it in a different manner. I still think on this ground, on these surfaces we have to take the game on.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday.