Dubai: Sunrisers Hyderabad once again look like the whipping boys of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They have lost both their games so far and look the weakest of all the teams after 12 matches being played in the IPL.
They started the campaign against Rajasthan Royals and leaked 210 runs in their first game. They were also guilty of bowling too many no balls, which cost them the wicket of the dangerous Jos Buttler. And when they came down to chase the target, the Sunrisers were blown away by the Rajasthan Royals and lost the game by a margin of 61 runs.
In the second game against the new team Lucknow Giants, their bowlers made a good start to put the opposition on the backfoot at 30 for three in the powerplay overs, but let the opposition off the hook due to sloppy fielding and Lucknow ended up with a fighting total of 170. While chasing, the Sunrisers first started with Kane Williamson, who was playing the old school cricket, and Abhishek Sharma and made a mess of their powerplay by eating up the deliveries.
They got back into the game with Rahul Tripathi scoring 44, but Aiden Makram, after batting for 14 balls, ended up throwing his wicket away. At one stage with six wickets in hand, Hyderabad required 50 off the last five overs with Nicolas Pooran and Washington Sundar at the crease. Generally, you would back the chasing team to finish the game with dew in their favour, but they lost their last five wickets in a flurry and eventually lost the game by 12 runs. It was a match they should have easily won.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have been playing the same brand of cricket as last year where they finished at the bottom of the table and by the looks of the other teams, it seems this year again too they might be the whipping boys as they seem to be lacking planning and the firepower to propel the team.
