‘I thought we were on point, especially the bowling performance’ - Aiden Markram after SRH's maiden victory in IPL 2023

After two back-to-back losses in the ongoing IPL 2023, Sunrisers Hyderabad finally registered their maiden win of the season against the Punjab Kings. The bowlers were magnificent and gave a perfect start as the visiting team was 88 for nine at one point. However, courtesy of Shikhar Dhawan’s one-man show, PBKS posted 143 runs on board but that in the end wasn’t enough for his side.

Hyderabad chased it down with absolute ease as Aiden Markram registered his first win as SRH skipper. Following the match, Markram was pleased with the side’s all-round performance and especially lauded the bowlers for being clinical throughout. He stated that the team executed the plan perfectly and that’s one of the reasons behind their victory.

“It's tough to say what changed (from previous games), but the execution on the field was better tonight. We had plans in earlier games too but couldn't execute them properly. Today, I thought we were on point, especially the bowling performance. We took wickets with the new ball, took wickets in the powerplay and put them under pressure. Then a great spell of spin bowling by Mayank,” Markram was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Markram hails Rahul Tripathi for his blistering show

While chasing, SRH lost two quick wickets of Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal. However, Rahul Tripathi rose to the occasion and played some brilliant cricket to help Hyderabad win. The 32-year-old smashed 74 runs off 48 deliveries to change the momentum, something which Markram acknowledged later.

“It was Rahul being Rahul. He played an incredible knock today. I did speak to him and he told me that he was struggling to rotate strike initially but once he got a feel of the pitch, he put the bowlers under pressure like he always does. Really happy for him. He takes a lot of pressure off the batting unit and his form is exciting for us as a team,” the skipper added.

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