Veteran fast bowler Ashish Nehra had insisted that there is no need for his teammates to panic after Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered their second consecutive defeat. David Warner’s men fell short by 17 runs while chasing Kolkata Knight Riders’ 172 on Saturday at the Eden Gardens.
The defending champions began their title defence in style, thrashing Royal Challengers Bangalore by 35 runs before registering a thumping 9-wicket win over Gujarat Lions.
But two consecutive losses against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders might sent down a warning into the dressing room but Nehra said these are still early days in the tournament and did not sound too worried after the loss.
“I still feel as a bowler we could have given 10-12 runs lesser. But in T20s, there are always the ifs and buts. Like he [journalist] asked me about Robin’s caught behind decision and then he scored 68 runs. Those things will happen. On this ground I will take 170, on this wicket especially with our batting. In T20s, 10-15 runs is not too big a margin. It might seem so but with two hits those runs can be covered. If Ben Cutting had continued, he could have finished it. And in T20s you can always chase 55 in the last four overs if you have wickets in hand. Gone are the days when you think four overs, 40 runs is too much. If you look at all the games, five times out of ten, teams are chasing it. So it was not that big a target,” said Nehra at the post-match conference.“I don’t think it’s the time to panic.”
“In T20, like you said, on this ground 170-180 then it is gettable. The pitch is good, the outfield is good. If you are falling behind by just 10-15 runs then it doesn’t matter too much. If you are losing consistently by a big margin then you have to think. All the teams are pretty closely placed. In this format, you get a few good games and a few poor ones,” he added.
The visitors began their chase in solid style with their openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner adding 46 runs for the first wicket but the game turned in the hosts favour once the spinners began operating in tandem. Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine did not give the visiting batsmen a chance to free their arms and Nehra feels those spells played a decisive role in deciding the outcome of the match.
“I think the turning point of this match was the spell of Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine. I think we could have played spin maybe better. On this wicket, the fast bowlers were easier to bat against with the old ball. So if we had played spin better, if we hadn’t given 2-3 wickets it could have been a different game,” he said.
Nehra also did not read too much into the poor umpiring during the match. The umpire had shockingly given his decision in favour of Robin Uthappa even when the batsman had edged his first ball to the wicketkeeper. He went on to score a match-turning 68.
“See that is part and parcel of the game. You can’t think about these small things. Sometimes it goes in your favour and sometimes it doesn’t. You can’t keep thinking about small things,” he said.