The tournament opened up once again after an inspired performance from the Rising Pune Supergiants saw them getting the better of Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad. By the virtue of the win, the Supergiants have kept their hopes of remaining in the hunt alive. It was a completely dominating performance from Pune, as Ashok Dinda was lethal in his first spell, where he got rid of danger man David Warner.
From the Sunrisers’ point of view, the loss was definitely a wake-up call. As the tournament proceeds towards its business end, each game from here on becomes very crucial for them. The only possible sign of positivity for the Sunrisers was the form displayed by southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, who seemed to be slowly getting back his touch.
Post the game, Sunrisers’ Ashish Nehra admitted that his side shouldn’t panic after the loss to Pune. “Definitely disappointed to lose the game, but it’s part of the T20 game. We played well three games, but 145-150 would have been a good score,” Nehra said. “As I said it can happen in T20 cricket. You must have seen teams scoring 200-225, but in the next game, the same team is bowled out for 125-130. That’s the nature of the game. Once you are 30 for 5, you are always playing catch-up. We were lucky that we scored 120 because Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed to score those 20 runs. Otherwise, we were looking like getting 100-105 maybe,” said Nehra.
Nehra admitted that the total was too low to defend but stated that the side would improve in the matches to follow. “Once you are defending 100-110, it’s very difficult and as a bowler, you try different things. Even someone like Mustafizur Rahman, who has been bowling so well, was trying different things. When you try different things you can go for runs. But all in all, you always look to improve, so it’s a learning process. It wasn’t a good game for us. There’s plenty more to come. Still early days in the tournament, so we are looking forward,” Nehra said.
Nehra also divulged details about his own personal form as he seemed to be rusty coming on the back of an injury. “I played after 2-3 weeks. Like I said, we have 2-3 games every week. The more I play, I will get better. I would say I was a bit rusty compared to how I was bowling in the last 6, 7, 8 months. With more games coming up, I’ll get better from here,” said Nehra.