‘That’s real aggression’

Sunrisers Hyderabad had set IPL’s new batting benchmarks last season, breaching the 250-mark thrice while recording the tournament’s highest-ever total. When they put up 286-6 in their IPL-18 opener, only a run short of that record high, fans and foes would’ve said “here we go again.”

SRH must learn from KKR

On Thursday night, after yet another batting collapse, the orange brigade would do well to take a leaf out of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ book. If KKR mentor Dwayne Bravo’s message to his bungling batsmen before the SRH match was the “need to apply themselves a bit more,” it has been well taken. Vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer was around to endorse and explain the ‘smart’ in their new aggression.  

“It’s very important for us to read the situation and then react aggressively. Aggression does not mean tonking every ball for a six,” Venkatesh said after KKR plunged 2024 runners-up SRH to an 80-run defeat here on Thursday. “It’s about how you are able to maximise the conditions in your favour. That’s what aggression actually is, and that’s how we as a team want to play. We don’t want to be the team that when we hit it we score 250 and when we don’t, we get out for 70.”

Iyer, who blasted a 29-ball 60 and put together a telling 91 for the fifth wicket with Rinku Singh, said the two learnt from skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi during the strategic timeout that it was “not a track where you could just walk in and start hitting.”

All-rounders brought in

Both teams had bolstered their batting with all-rounders, KKR bringing in Moeen Ali and SRH handing an IPL debut to Sri Lankan southpaw Kamindu Mendis, who also got to display his ambidextrous bowling abilities.

Iyer confided KKR were not entirely sure of victory even after setting a target of 201. “You can’t be comfortable with any score when it comes to SRH. The way they play, even after scoring 200-220, you feel they can get it,” Iyer said, adding: “But we always knew that a team which is ultra-aggressive, always carries the risk of losing wickets, and that is what we wanted to exploit. The talk was to pick up early wickets and then see how the game goes.”  

SRH fielding coach James Franklin too felt the target was “definitely gettable” as “we’ve seen over the last couple of years here at Eden Gardens.” 
“We certainly felt we were in the game. Unfortunately, we lost three wickets in the first three overs,” he explained, even as he indicated that Pat Cummins & Co would keep to their ultra-aggressive batting.