Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Daniel Vettori backed his side to bounce back strongly after their crushing 82-run defeat against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, May 12.
Despite the heavy loss, SRH remain third on the IPL 2026 points table. Chasing 169, the Hyderabad-based side was blown away by Gujarat’s lethal pace attack, with Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Jason Holder and Prasidh Krishna sharing nine wickets between them as SRH were bowled out in just 14.5 overs.
However, Vettori felt his side had done well with the ball to restrict GT to 168/5 on a batting-friendly surface. SRH bowlers removed both Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler cheaply in the powerplay, while Pat Cummins and Praful Hinge kept things tight throughout the innings.
“We were satisfied at the halfway mark. We knew coming up against their bowling line-up and the fact that they had five seamers plus Rashid was always going to be a challenge. We didn’t get the start we wanted and they were able to capitalise the whole way through and their bowling was brilliant,” Vettori said in a post-match press conference.
Although Sai Sudharsan scored a composed 61, SRH managed to keep him relatively quiet before Washington Sundar’s quickfire fifty gave GT late momentum.
The SRH head coach further admitted the batting collapse hurt their chase, especially after losing key batters like Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan early in the innings.
“I think you reflect on the fact that we’ve done well to restrict them, obviously those two big wickets of Shubman and Jos in the powerplay set us up to be able to limit them. But we are under no illusions around the way that they’ve been playing, and on that surface. We knew we needed to get off to a good start and that’s what we weren’t able to do,” Vettori continued.
But despite the thumping loss, the former New Zealand skipper is not worried about his side’s morale.
“Every team throughout the IPL is going to have their small blips once in a while and ours was tonight. But I don’t see any reason why we won’t bounce back,” he concluded.
After the win, Gujarat Titans have secured the top spot in the points table, with 16 points in just 12 games.
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