We can take a lot of heart from our performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday night. While it was obviously disappointing to have lost the game, I thought we did a great job in defending a low score to enforce a tie.
In the end, we have to acknowledge that Hyderabad deserved the win as they proved stronger when it came down to the Super Over.
We always expected Dale Steyn to bowl the Super Over and even though overhauling their score of 20 against a bowler of his ability was going to be a stiff task, we believed it was possible.
Scoring big on the first two deliveries was the key, but we couldn’t manage to do that even though we could have produced another tie with a six off the last ball.
Vinay Kumar was understandably disappointed he wasn’t quite able to repeat his brilliant final over effort in the Super Over contest, but let’s not forget that he was instrumental in helping us win the previous game against Mumbai Indians and will surely come back stronger from this experience.
Immediate opportunity
In any case, we have an immediate opportunity to return the favour as we play Hyderabad again on Tuesday.
We are at home this time so we know the conditions pretty well and back ourselves to respond to Sunday’s loss with an improved showing in front of our fans.
I had predicted the first meeting with Hyderabad would be an extremely close affair and I expect it to be no different this evening with, hopefully, the exception being we will witness a high-scoring game.
Having just played each other, there won’t be any secrets as both teams will know what to expect of the other.
Of course, we hope the outcome may be in our favour on this occasion.
Must score more runs
But to enhance our chances, it’s vital for us to put some more runs on the board so that our bowlers come under less pressure.
It’s simple: in T20, the more runs you score, the more games you are likely to win.
Therefore, getting off to a good start will be the key to posting a competitive total. We have some great players in our middle-order, but it’s important to create a platform for them to build on.
A big fillip for us is the likely return of A.B. de Villiers. I’m not absolutely certain whether he will take the field against Hyderabad, but what is certain is that he is a massive plus for any team.
