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Bhuvneshwar Kumar was terrific in the Powerplay overs. (BCCI Photo)
Sunrisers Hyderabad pacers fared much better than their Delhi Capitals counterpart during a run-fest at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is happy Sunrisers Hyderabad batters are giving the bowlers plenty of runs to defend in the ongoing IPL 2024. On Saturday, SRH batter racked up 267/7 against Delhi Capitals which is the third time this year the franchise has posted a team total in excess of 250.
While SRH batters might be taking all the limelight, Bhuvneshwar gave a timely reminder that on pitches which are quite friendly to batters in T20 cricket, it’s the bowlers who ultimately win a team tournaments.
“Bowling is something which wins you matches. I don’t know who said this but ‘batting wins you the sponsorships and bowling wins you the championships’. That’s very well said. When you defend, almost 250 (tonight) but it came down to the last few overs. The way we are bowling is pretty good. Looks bad on the scoreboard but the way we have executed our plans it’s pretty good,” Bhuvneshwar said after the match.
Travis Head (89 off 32), Shahbaz Ahmed (59* off 29) and Abhishek Sharma (46 off 12) helped SRH post another mammoth total on a lifeless pitch. SRH bowlers were prepared for some spanking too but Bhuvneshwar Kumar was superb in the Powerplay as he bowled two overs for one wicket and 15 runs during the phase.
While batters dominated the show from either side, SRH pacers managed to hold their own. T Natarajan was the star performer with the ball, finishing with excellent figures of 4/19 from four overs.
Nitish Reddy (2/17) and Bhuvneshwar (1/33) were impressive too as SRH bowled out DC for 199 to win by 67 runs.
“When you’re defending those many runs, either you go for plenty of runs or you get them out within 150. We accepted the fact defending those many runs, we will go for plenty of runs. We wanted to keep executing our plans, keep thinking the right way,” Bhuvneshwar said.
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Bhuvneshwar was full of praise for ‘silent guy’ Natarajan.
“We know how good he’s (Natarajan) when it comes to yorkers. He’s someone who keeps working hard, a silent guy, goes unnoticed most of the times. He’s truly a matchwinner,” he said.
Bhuvneshwar has been part of SRH set up for a long time now and he’s happy the bowlers have taken the backseat with batters taking charge.
He though quipped how SRH batters are spoiling them by regularly posting mammoth total. “They are ruining us. It will be mentally difficult to defend if in one of the matches we score 180-200 runs. Great to see the way they’re batting,” Bhuvneshwar said.
SRH have jumped to the second spot on the points table following their latest win.
