'Eat food if hungry, don't eat balls' - Virender Sehwag's dig at SRH after loss against DC

Even a break in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was not enough for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to reverse their fortunes in their resumption in the UAE leg as they lost by eight wickets against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Wednesday (22 September). Again a poor batting display was the main reason as their batters could post only 134. Former India batter Virender Sehwag was left unimpressed by this batting display by SRH.

After opting to bat first, Kane Williamson-led SRH side failed to deliver on a good batting surface against DC. It all started with pacer Anrich Nortje getting the wicket of David Warner for a naught. From there, the writing was on the wall as DC bowlers kept chipping with wickets at regular intervals.

Known to not mince words, Sehwag this time came hard down at the SRH batters and said lack of intent was the main reason why the team lost the match. All the SRH batters barring Abdul Samad scored at a strike rate of below 120. “Is ball something to eat that too in T20? Don’t eat the ball. If you are hungry, eat food.” Sehwag said in the video.

Sehwag further opined that SRH’s slow batting against DC might have even made the ball bored. “As Harshad Mehta had said be it market or cricket the biggest risk is not taking any risk. But Hyderabad was playing so sluggishly that even the ball would have said this to them in agony – ‘Maro mujhe…maaro mujhe (please hit me),” he added.

Sunrisers Hyderabad once again caused suffering to their owner: Virender Sehwag

In reply, DC batters didn’t find any difficultly in scoring runs as they chased the total with two overs to spare. Returning Shreyas Iyer scored an unbeaten 47 and skipper Rishabh Pant remained unbeaten on 35. Sehwag stated that SRH’s horrible batting might have made their owners unhappy.

“Delhi chased the total in only 17.5 overs. Iyer was not out on 47, while Pant scored 35 runs off 21 deliveries. Hyderabad once again caused suffering to their owner,” Sehwag.

SRH have only won one game in their eight competed games and their chances of making it to the playoffs now depend on their remaining performances and also on other teams if they harbor hopes of making the playoffs in the UAE leg of IPL.