IPL 10: Umesh Yadav credits SRH bowlers for bowling better on the day

The Kolkata Knight Riders were just a win away from qualifying for the playoffs when they faced Sunrisers Hyderabad at Hyderabad recently. However, the defending champions were too hot to handle for the table toppers. Reflecting back at the match, KKR pacer Umesh Yadav tried to cite reasons where they faltered in the high-intensity encounter.

The Sunrisers posted a mammoth total on the board in excess of 200 riding on a herculean ton from their skipper David Warner. In the run chase, the Knight Riders needed a similar knock from any of their batsmen. But that did not happen. Barring a fifty from Robin Uthappa, no other batsmen rose to the occasion for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Umesh Yadav remarked that losing too many early wickets cost them the match.

“We gave away too many runs. In IPL, you need early wickets. We didn’t get that. We lacked a bit at the start. We also missed a catch. That harmed us pretty badly,” he quoted in the post match press conference.

The Indian speedster further lauded the efforts of the SRH bowlers. Young pacers Siddharth Kaul and Mohammad Siraj bagged 2 wickets each on the day conceding a total of just 52 runs. Umesh Yadav noted that the opposition bowlers stuck to their plans. Also, the fact that they were defending a total as high as 200 plus, the confidence of the bowlers went sky high.

“Unke bowleron ne acha dala. Unke paas plan tha. (Their bowlers did well. They had a plan). Obviously when you have 200-plus on the board, your confidence is bound to be high. If we had restricted them to 170, the scenario of this game would’ve been quite different. According to me, their bowlers did well, they started well. When we began, we conceded 50 in the first 4 overs. But they controlled it well. The difference (of runs conceded at the start) was a lot – there was a margin of 30 runs in their scoring and ours,” Yadav quoted.

Many pointed out that had Chris Woakes not dropped David Warner in the game, things could have been different. Umesh agreed to the same but conceded that these things are part and parcel of the game. Some days the catches are taken and are dropped on the other.

“If Woakes would have held onto his catch, obviously the game could’ve headed elsewhere. But these things happen in cricket. Ek din aap catch pakadte ho, par doosre din chodte ho, yeh toh hota rehta hai (One day you hold on to your catch, but on another day you don’t. These things keep happening),” conceded the Vidarbha pacer.