Veteran India pacer Zaheer Khan feels that Sunrisers Hyderabad should stick with Abhishek Sharma at the top of batting order after his impressive performance against Delhi Capitals. Abhishek scored sublime 67 runs off 36 balls as he took charge against the Capitals bowlers right from the start and struck 12 boundaries and a six. Sunrisers snapped their three-match losing streak with a 9-run victory over Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
It was a clash between the two bottom-placed sides and Sunrisers managed to defend the 198-run target and restricted the hosts to 188/6.
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JioCinema IPL expert Zaheer praised Sharma for his approach at the top of the order, saying SRH should stick to opening with him.
“He should continue batting at the top of the order even though (Harry) Brook has scored a hundred. IPL is such a tournament that you pay heavily if you make mistakes at the top of the order. A lot of planning goes into finalising these things even before the tournament starts,” said Khan.
“They went back to the pair of Mayank Agarwal and Sharma to open the innings today and it paid off. Brook’s promotion to the top earlier had led to a lot of confusion in their ranks. Even today, I reiterate that SRH are a very good side on paper, but they are not producing the best results and that has to do with something unrelated to cricket. How you approach games, the decisions you make are a big part of IPL,” added Khan.
Spinner Mayank Markande continued to impress for SRH, taking 2/20 in his four overs. His victims included the dangerous-looking opener Phil Salt, who struck 59 off 35 balls. His innings was laced with nine boundaries. Salt and Mitchell Marsh 63 runs (39b, 1×4, 6×6) put on 112 for the second wicket after skipper David Warner was out for zero.
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Another JioCinema expert Scott Styris also agreed with Zaheer and said that Sunrisers have rectified the mistake by pushing Harry Brook in the middle-order.
“Sharma is back to the place where he should be and Harry Brook is back to a place he’s more comfortable with. They at least rectified the mistake they made.”
On DC’s batting, Khan said: “Today we got to see a six that landed just on the boundary rope but beyond that there were quite a few long hits. They opened today with Phil Salt and I have been saying this from before the tournament started that it would not have been a bad option for them to open with Mitchell March.”
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