Former Indian cricketer Deep Dasgupta believes that Sunrisers Hyderabad’s heartbreaking loss will boil down to their skipper Aiden Markram, who failed to take responsibility to finish the innings for his side against the two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
In Chase of 172 runs, Sunrisers Hyderabad showed great intent in the powerplay but lost wickets in quick succession to put their side in deep trouble before their standout performer of the season Heinrich Klassen formed a partnership with their skipper Aiden Markram, to give his side real chance to chase down, before being dismissed for 36 runs off 20 balls by Shardul Thakur.
The former Indian wicketkeeper feels that Sunrisers Hyderabad was well within reach to chase down the total against KKR and reckons that Aiden Markram’s wicket was the turning point in the match and said that he should have finished the game for his side in the death overs.
“It seemed alright. Then you suddenly realized they have allowed the game to slip. I think it boils down to Markram. The way he got out, the time when he got out. I think that innings if he had finished it, it would have been a really good innings. It hasn’t and you look back at the innings and go, not a good strike-rate, got out at the wrong time and so maybe, he has got to take a bit of the blame I guess,” Deep Dasgupta said in Cricbuzz.
Sunrisers Hyderabad could not get past the total, as Nitish Rana took a brave call to bowl spinners in the death overs, especially the SRH batters found it difficult to bat against Varun Chakravarthy as he bowled brilliantly to concede just 12 runs in his final three overs to tilt the game in the favour of the two-time champions in Hyderabad.
Arshdeep Singh Needs One Good Spell To Get Him Back – Deep Dasgupta
Deep Dasgupta said that Punjab Kings have got a lot of problems in their bowling as they could not stop the run flow against the five-time champions Mumbai Indians on their home soil and feels that their star bowler Arshdeep Singh has lost his confidence in the loss of a couple of games, as he conceded 66 runs in his 3.5 overs against Mumbai.
“Punjab’s bowling unit has gone for plenty in the last few games. I don’t think that helps their confidence either. Someone like Arshdeep, I mean as good as he is, but he has been very, very expensive. Leave aside this game; even in the last game, he was very expensive,” Deep Dasgupta said.
The former Indian cricketer believes that Punjab King’s bowling has failed as a unit, and reckons that Arshdeep’s body language was low against Mumbai Indians.
“As a unit, they haven’t performed. He is not very expressive, but you can see in his body language that he needs one good spell to get him back into that right mind space,” he added.
Punjab Kings will take on two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the next match on May 8 in the iconic Eden Gardens and will stage to come back to keep themselves in the hunt for IPL 2023 playoffs.