IPL 2021: Sanjay Manjrekar Points Out The Reason Why SRH "Didn't Deserve To Win" Against Mumbai Indians

Former India batsman, Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the Sunrisers Hyderabad didn’t deserve to win their third game of IPL 2021, against the Mumbai Indians on Saturday in Chennai after they selected three young and inexperienced batters in their middle-order.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had lost their first couple of games failing to chase down total after being in a position of strength, made 4 changes in their line-up on Saturday. Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Khaleel Ahmed replaced Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Nadeem, and T Natarajan.

Despite plenty of changes in the eleven, the David Warner-led outfit suffered the same fate as they did in their first two games. Chasing 151, Jonny Bairstow gave the team a powerful start blasting 43 runs off 22 balls in a 67-run opening stand with Warner, and put SRH in a commanding position for others to chase down the remaining 84 runs from 76 balls.

However, a routine collapse followed. Manish Pandey, who has been criticized for his slow approach in the past couple of games, perished at long-off trying to hit a maximum of the in-form Rahul Chahar. The skipper got run out, and panic ensued in the SRH team.

The three youngsters – Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, and Abdul Samad – buckled under the pressure of the strong Mumbai bowling attack; Vijay Shankar’s 28-run fight was never going to be enough against Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult, as SRH lost by 13 runs, remaining the only team this season without a victory to their name.

Anyone that picks Abhishek, Virat and Samad all together does not deserve to win: Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar didn’t mince any words and slammed the Sunrisers management for selecting the three young batters, aged 19, 20, and 23 with less than 30-match IPL experience, to do the finishing job in a high-pressure game, under a world-class MI bowling attack. The

“Sorry to say, but anyone that picks Abhishek Sharma, Virat Singh and Abdul Samad all together in one playing XI does not deserve to win,” Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted.

Sorry to say, but anyone that picks Abhishek Sharma, Virat Singh and Abdul Samad all together in one playing XI does not deserve to win.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 17, 2021

Captain David Warner lamented on the loss; he opines that he and Bairstow were set and one of them should have batted deep to see off the run-chase. They take on the Punjab Kings on Wednesday.

“I don’t know how to take that. Obviously disappointing. Two of us were set but it proves that if you don’t bat deep, you can’t win. That was my game-plan, a great piece of fielding from Hardik though. But that’s the game of cricket. These are very much chaseable targets, if you get a partnership and if there is one person at the end, you can chase it down,” the Australian said.

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