IPL 2025
Such was the surface that even Ishan Kishan failed to adapt at his home ground of last year © BCCI/IPL
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) is eager to turn around a troubling statistic; they remain the only team in the IPL this season without an away win. Their recent match at Wankhede Stadium ended in disappointment as they were soundly defeated by the Mumbai Indians on April 17. The concern extends beyond their results, revealing an unsettling trend in their performances.
Both of SRH’s victories have occurred at home on batting-friendly pitches, where they posted impressive scores of 286 and successfully chased 246. Yet in their other two home matches, their performances fell short, mustering only 191 runs on a pitch where 220 was considered par, and a mere 153 on the toughest surface in the stadium. Their away matches have compounded these issues, with SRH failing to reach 170 runs in any game outside Hyderabad this season.
There continues to be discussion on the degree of home advantage in the IPL, and SRH has faced more challenging surfaces on their away games, whether this is merely coincidental or a result of strategy. Head coach Daniel Vettori is cognizant of the issues but remains composed.
“No one truly controls the pitch conditions,” Vettori stated in the post-match press conference. “There’s a degree of luck in facing wickets that challenge us. However, we need to adapt better to these situations.”
On a Wankhede pitch that was slower than usual, SRH’s aggressive opening batsmen struggled to find their rhythm. Despite surviving the PowerPlay without losing a wicket, largely due to some missed catches from MI, the innings never gained momentum aside from a brief resurgence towards the end from Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket Verma.
The Mumbai Indians excelled in their bowling strategy, and three of SRH’s top four batsmen were unable to maintain a run-a-ball strike rate. Travis Head struggled through 29 balls for only 28 runs, while even the normally explosive Klaasen had a strike rate of just 132, boosted by a single big over late in the innings. As dew settled in during SRH’s innings, MI found the chase increasingly straightforward.
© Cricbuzz
