File picture of Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Daniel Vettori
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. Giri
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s slam-bang batting style has not delivered results in IPL 2025. Head coach Daniel Vettori, quite understandably, was pleased with the way SRH went out of its comfort zone while chasing down Chennai Super Kings’ 154 on Friday (April 25, 2025)
The visitor brought in the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis into the XI and gave Nitish Kumar Reddy — who has been struggling to get going — the finisher’s role. The ploy was to handle the slow nature of the MAC Stadium pitch better.
“The onus was on us to adapt and understand what’s required, and that’s why the likes of Kamindu came into the team… that’s why there was the shuffle in the batting order, putting (Heinrich) Klaasen up and Nitish down. That was to give us a more balanced approach to the chase,” Vettori said after SRH’s five-wicket win on Friday.
“We have to get better at these surfaces, there’s no doubt about that. If our bowlers put up performances like that, then we have to complement them.”
The 46-year-old pinpointed Mendis’ superlative catch to dismiss Dewald Brevis as the match’s turning point.
“I think it’s just instinct. It’s an innate ability to be able to move, see the ball and time your diving. It’s probably one of those catches that even a brilliant fielder only has one or two in their career. But more importantly, it came when Brevis was putting a lot of pressure back on us. If he’d stayed in, probably the score would have gotten away from us,” Vettori added.
Published – April 26, 2025 03:22 pm IST