Muralidharan
Bangalore: Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling coach Muttiah Muralidharan feels his team would have had a good chance of making the IPL X final if Wednesday's Eliminator against Kolkata Knight Riders wasn't truncated due to rain.
"I think overall if you see, the Bangalore wicket this year was very low scoring. I thought 130 was a par score. I think with more runs on the board and taking two or three early wickets in a 20-over game, we would have had a better chance than in a six-over game," Muralidharan told reporters at the post-match press conference here.
According to Muralidharan, Sunrisers fell 10 runs short of what they would have wanted after being put in to bat. "The wicket here is not that great to play shots, because if you had played your shots, you would have been bowled out for 70-80 runs.
"We were thinking about getting 140 runs. And if we had a 20-over game, we had the bowling to defend those runs. We had a better chance if it didn't rain. Unfortunately, we were 10 runs short. Knight Riders bowled well too," the former Sri Lanka off-spinner said.
"We have all seen on this wicket this season that even while defending 130-odd runs, teams have won," he added.
Muralidharan said the team had a very good season and played well. "Unfortunately, it was the rain which you cannot complain about, and you need to move on because they played better. We had a very good season and we played well.
"However, you go out sometimes when you are in the knock-outs. Therefore, this hasn't been our year, unfortunately. We will make sure to come back and fight for the trophy next year if we build a strong team," he said.
Muralidharan iterated that he is satisfied with Sunrisers players' performance. "Our batsmen batted well. The bowlers, who were picked in the auction, did well too. Therefore, we are satisfied with our players' performance.
"We also won quite a lot of matches and lost just five, along with this one. We won the trophy last year, but that is not going to happen every time.
"Look, every team tries hard. Therefore, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We take it on the chin and say, 'Okay, it's not our year'. I also congratulate all the players who played really well for us," Muralidharan concluded.
Sunrisers
D. Warner b Chawla 37
S. Dhawan c Uthappa b Umesh 11
K. W’son c S. Yadav b C’-Nile 24
Y. Singh c Chawla b Umesh 9
V. Shankar c S. Yadav b C’-Nile 22
N. Ojha c Lynn b Boult 16
C. Jordan c & b C’-Nile 0
B. Sharma not out 2
Extras (lb-3, w-4) 7
Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 128
Fall of wickets 1/25, 2/75, 3/75, 4/99, 5/118, 6/119, 7/128
Bowling: Umesh 4-0-21-2, Boult 4-0-30-1, Narine 4-0-20-0, Pathan 1-0-7-0, Coulter-Nile 4-0-20-3, Chawla 3-0-27-1
Knight Riders
R. Uthappa c Dhawan b Jordan 1
C. Lynn c Ojha b Kumar 6
Y. Pathan run out 0
G. Gambhir not out 32
I. Jaggi not out 5
Extras (lb-1, w-3) 4
Total (3 wickets; 5.2 overs) 48
Fall of wickets 1/7, 2/7, 3/12
Bowling: Kumar 1-0-11-1, Jordan 1-0-9-1, Rashid 2-0-11-0, Kaul 1-0-14-0, Bipul 0.2-0-2-0
MoM: Nathan Coulter-Nile
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