'Why would you not play him with Kane Williamson?' - Aakash Chopra slams SRH for not playing Jonny Bairstow in the Super Over

It was a bad day at the office for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as they lost the first Super Over of IPL 2021 against Delhi Capitals. Playing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, both DC and SRH made 159 runs, and that paved way for the first Super Over of the season. Batting first in the Super Over, Hyderabad managed to spring a surprise as instead of Jonny Bairstow, the duo of David Warner and Kane Williamson came to bat against Axar Patel. 

Williamson was an obvious choice for Hyderabad as he was the highest run-getter with his sublime knock of 66 runs off 51 balls. However, many were expecting Bairstow on the field instead of Warner as England’s opening batter played a stunning cameo of 38 runs in just 18 deliveries. The decision of not picking Bairstow didn’t go well with the Orange Army as they could score just seven runs. 

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra seemed critical of SRH for the same reason and took to his official YouTube channel to detail his opinion. “I was thinking that Bairstow will come in the Super over. Why would you not play him with Kane Williamson? He was sitting outside. Warner was not able to hit the ball and there were two dot balls,” said Chopra.

“They scored eight runs in total and there was a short run. That is the problem as DC would have got to chase nine runs and the match might have gone to another Super Over,” added Chopra.

Williamson is outstanding but someone needs to play with him: Aakash Chopra

Further in the video, Chopra opined on the run-chase by SRH against DC saying that Kane Williamson was the lone warrior and didn’t get any support from other batters. The Orange Army again witnessed a collapse of their batting order as from 104 for 3 in the 15th over, they soon went to 136 for 7 in the 19th over.

“Kane is outstanding but someone needs to play with him. Virat, Kedar, Abhishek, Vijay Shankar – I mean this is a procession of sorts. Hyderabad has given chances to so many people but things are not working out for the team. Jagadeesha Suchith did change a lost match in his team’s favor at the end,” signed off Chopra.

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