Lack of a Plan B hurting Sunrisers big time as they slump to another tame defeat at the hands of MI yesterday.
Lack of a Plan B was the key takeaway after another Sunrisers Hyderabad loss, this time at the hands of MI.
The “where’s plan B” question has been posed to the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batting lineup several times in IPL 2025. “At the moment, it’s all or nothing,” Nick Knight told the Mumbai Indians (MI) at home following SRH’s most recent defeat. When SRH was called to bat first, they were 35 for 5 in the ninth over of the match, making the result certain even if the deficit was seven wickets (with 26 balls remaining). Nevertheless, when Heinrich Klaasen and Abhinav Manohar added 99 runs for the sixth wicket later, plan B was implemented.
“If you see the way some batters have batted, they are just following the same pattern,” Varun Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show. “Yes, you can hit a few shots along the ground, you don’t have to hit everything in the air; a four is a good shot, but if you’re going to hit everything in the air, you’re going to get out more often than not. Especially when the wickets are like this, when they are slowing down towards the back end.”
Knight attempted to provide that perspective. “These discussions have got to be a little bit careful. It’s not like you can put [a] one-size-fits-all [answer] here. You can’t say Gujarat Titans [GT] are the best, they are doing it this way and everyone’s got to follow,” Knight said. “What Gujarat Titans are doing best is that they are using their resources the best. Their type of players play like that. It suits their style. When you look at Abhishek [Sharma] and Travis Head, I don’t want to see them hitting [along] the ground. I am more than happy to see them hitting aerially. Because that’s what they do, that’s what they do well.
“What I am slightly concerned with about SRH is when that doesn’t work and you find yourself two-down quickly, that’s when you’ve got to move it back for a little while. That’s when you’ve got to reassess it a little bit, you’ve got to say, ‘okay, that’s perhaps not working, we will try plan B for a bit and then go back to plan A’. It’s got to be a bit [balanced]. At the moment, it’s all or nothing. There are times when you have to rejig your attitude, the approach a little bit, and then get back on it. There is a lack of that adjustment”