We should have been sitting high on the points table, says SRH coach Lara

NEW DELHI: After their another loss in the ongoing IPL 2023, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) coach Brian Lara said they should have been sitting high on the points table at this juncture of the tournament but they have suffered defeats from winning positions in many games.

Lucknow Super Giants notched a crucial win to get into top 4, after two defeats and a no result, to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in 58th match of TATA IPL 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Prerak Mankad made his mark with a crucial knock 64 not out off 45 of as impactful breezy knocks from Marcus Stoinis (40 off 25) and Nicholas Pooran (44 not out off13) sparked a brilliant comeback to achieve LSG a seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in 58th match of IPL 2023 after attacking cameos from SRH batters Heinrich Klassen (47 off 29), Abdul Samad (37 off 25), Anmolpreet Singh (36 off 27).

Chasing a challenging total of 183, LSG needed 69 to win off the last five overs and the pressure was on them. However, the 16th over of the chase changed the equation completely.

SRH handed the ball to Abhishek Sharma and he ended up being hit for five sixes - two by Marcus Stoinis and three by Nicholas Pooran - in a 31-run over. It was easy sailing for LSG from there as they won with four deliveries to spare.

This was yet another game that SRH were in control of but weren't able to close out, a fact that head coach Lara pointed out during the post-match press conference.

"I suppose you can say that now, in hindsight. Obviously it did not work out for us. It was a stage where we had one over of spin to bowl. We always back our fast bowlers to get the job done. So we knew that one over was going to be attacked. Unfortunately all six or seven balls they had an opportunity to score. We got a wicket with one of it. But so be it," said Lara about 16th over and the decision to hand the ball to Abhishek.

"Sometimes these things happen. We've had our luck, we've seen in the tournament other teams pulled off amazing victories and we got to give it to Lucknow Super Giants for the way they played right till the end," he added.

SRH are precariously placed at the ninth position with only eight points in 11 games, but Lara hasn't ruled out their chances yet.

"It's a situation where we should be sitting down pretty high on this table. We've had some close games and games that entering the final strides of the game, we were ahead. And we did not close it off. It's fair to say we could have been well-placed in this tournament and it's not the case now," the coach said.

"We've got three games left and we've got to get the guys motivated to get results in these three games. It's not over and I would hate to see heads drop and attitudes drop. I would like to keep it as upbeat as possible and see if we can get wins in the remaining games," he added.

The SRH head coach also lamented the lack of contributions from the majority of the batters while he praised Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad for putting up a partnership in the latter half of their batting which has helped the team post a good total.

"It's not consistent. The highest run-scorer, I don't think has crossed 300 runs for the tournament. That is not cutting it for a batting unit. You can piece partnerships together, that's the good thing about this game, it's such a short version of the game you get two or three partnerships.

As you saw with Klaasen and Samad, you get some partnerships going there and then you know you can get a total. If it was a 50-over game, we'd be in dire straits, factoring with the way we've been batting. But you must commend a player like Klaasen, a player like Samad, for what they've been able to do from being in precarious situations and trying to still put a total up for us, " said Lara.

The 54-year old felt it was an above par score but the one over made all the difference.

"I felt today we were above par. When I saw a couple of deliveries from Krunal Pandya, I thought 'well, we've got spinners and we can use the conditions'. For a majority of the game...the way our opening bowlers restricted LSG in the powerplay, they were just tremendous to see and it was always going to be an uphill battle for them after that. And just that one over, if we can take that off our back, it could be a different story," said Lara.