Ahmedabad, May 13 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori defended his batting unit despite suffering a record loss to Gujarat Titans after being folded for a mere 86, calling it a blip that every team suffers once in a while in the tournament.

After Sai Sudharsan (61) and Washington Sundar (50) powered GT to 168/5. In reply, SRH collapsed to their lowest-ever IPL total of 86 in pursuit of 169, their biggest defeat by runs in the IPL.

“We knew we needed to get off to a good start, and that’s what we weren’t able to do. But I mean if they’d scored 200, then we would have known it would have been incredibly difficult. But I think the fact that it was 169, we thought we had a chance. But as always, you have to start well and we didn’t, and that’s what happens.

“And I don’t put any blame on the batting unit. They’ve been exceptional this year. Every team throughout the IPL is going to have their small blips once in a while, and ours was tonight,” Vettori said in a post-match presser.

Kagiso Rabada and Jason Holder were our standout bowlers with three wickets each. Prasidh ‘Skiddy’ Krishna contributed with two scalps, while Mohammed Siraj and Rashid Khan chipped in with one wicket apiece as GT stormed to the top of the points table after successfully defending the second-lowest total this season.

“We knew coming up against their bowling line-up and the fact that they had five seamers (Arshad Khan was the fifth but didn’t get to bowl) plus Rashid (Khan) was always going to be a challenge. We didn’t get the start we wanted, and they were able to capitalise the whole way through, and their bowling was brilliant,” Vettori said.

The heavy defeat damages SRH’s NRR and serves as a major wake-up call for their batting unit. Despite the loss, they remain in the thick of the playoff race but must bounce back quickly in their upcoming fixtures to secure a top-two finish.

–IANS

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