'We wanted to bowl first because the conditions were vastly different' - Daniel Vettori points out reasons behind SRH's one-sided loss vs MI

After reaching the final last season, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were expected to make a mark again in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. However, on Wednesday, April 23, the Pat Cummins-led side suffered their sixth defeat of the season in eight matches, going down to the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Hardik Pandya won the toss for MI and opted to field first. SRH head coach Daniel Vettori noted that it was a critical moment on the night. He said that SRH would have also bowled first had they won the toss, as the conditions were different from the previous matches at the iconic venue. Vettori admitted that his batters failed to get accustomed to the conditions, and after losing four quick wickets, they were always behind the eight ball.

"I think obviously, the toss was important. We wanted to bowl first because the conditions were vastly different, [it was a different] wicket to the previous ones. I mean, we've discussed that it's a 280, 250 wicket. So conditions changed dramatically. So to be able to get that assessment early around what a par score was, is obviously difficult," Vettori was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

"When you go in there early on, you're trying to obviously maximise that power play. And unfortunately, we weren't able to, and we kept losing wickets. Once we realised that the surface wasn't what we anticipated, then we needed to build towards that sort of 180 score. That, unfortunately, is difficult to do when you're 24 for four after the power play," he added.

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Vettori rued Ishan Kishan's unfortunate dismissal and said that it put the team under a lot of pressure. The former New Zealand captain also mentioned that SRH have struggled to form partnerships throughout the season, something that was crucial on Wednesday after Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma departed cheaply.

"Once we got through that, maybe two overs, the assessment was that it was not the 250-260 wicket that this has been the last couple of games. And we obviously went out of depth. I mean, the dismissal of Ishan is obviously disappointing and that puts pressure on everyone coming in. When you're in a powerplay situation, you still want to try and maximise those two fielders out. So there's still some emphasis or onus on the batsmen that are there to try and score some runs. And today was very unfortunate that they couldn't get it done," Vettori said.

"Understanding what a good score is, what a par score is and being able to set that up. Travis and Abhi [Abhishek Sharma], when they go, they're very aggressive and they take the game on and it's led to a lot of success for us. When they don't succeed, then it's the responsibility of the other batsmen. And potentially that's what we haven't had this season, around the ability for partnerships, for one or two guys to step up in games. We got two today, but it was just a little bit too late for us," he added.