IPL 2021: Sunrisers Hyderabad Batsmen Lost Their Wickets Like Tailenders, Says Ashish Nehra After SRH’s 6-Run Loss To RCB

Former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra slammed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batsmen over losing their wickets in a poor fashion against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2021. Nehra mentioned that Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, and Abdul Samad lost their wickets like tailenders.

Talking about Manish Pandey, Nehra also said that since he didn’t adapt to pressure while batting, he could not cement his place in the Indian team.

Chasing 150 to win, Sunrisers Hyderabad started well with David Warner (54) and Manish Pandey (38) establishing an 83-run stand for the 2nd wicket. After David Warner lost his wicket at the team score of 96-2 in 13.2 overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad were still in the driver’s seat.

However, Shahbaz Ahmed’s 17th over twisted the game as he dismissed Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, and Abdul Samad in the same over.

SRH Batsmen Appeared To Lose Wickets Like Tailenders: Ashish Nehra

While speaking to Cricbuzz, Nehra spoke about Shahbaz Ahmed’s over. Talking about the way SRH batsmen batted in Shahbaz Ahmed’s over, Ashish Nehra said that SRH batsmen lost wickets like tailenders.

“Virat Kohli deployed his only left-arm spinner at the right time. But the way SRH batters – Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Abdul Samad got out, it didn’t seem like proper batters are getting out. They appeared to be losing wickets like tailenders, especially Pandey,” Ashish Nehra said.

Talking about Manish Pandey in particular, the former India pacer Nehra said that he does not understand how to play under pressure.

When the players at positions 9, 10, 11 don’t have many options against moving deliveries, they target only mid-wicket and long on. And that’s the major difference. When you are in a good form and know how to play under pressure, you have options to hit those away going deliveries towards mid-off or cover,” he further said.

“And that’s why Manish Pandey failed to cement his place in the Indian team. You look when he made his debut, and then the likes of Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav came and went far ahead. Because these players are much better at adapting to the pressure and that’s why they leapfrogged Pandey,” Ashish Nehra further added.

Manish Pandey played a cross-batted shot during Shahbaz Ahmed’s over and was caught out. While he was expected to take Sunrisers Hyderabad to victory after David Warner’s departure, he lost his wicket at the crucial moment with 38 runs off 39 balls. After Shahbaz Ahmed’s three wickets in his one over, Sunrisers Hyderabad kept on losing wickets and ultimately lost the match by 6 runs.