Sunrisers Hyderabad officially became the first team to get eliminated from the race of IPL 2021. The team lost 8 out of 9 matches this season, the last one being against the Punjab Kings team, held at the Dubai International Stadium.
This IPL team has been a consistent performer in the history of IPL. Since their inception, the team has reached the playoffs six times, with their best performance in 2016 when they became the champions. Indeed, according to data collated by Betway, even before match 29 of this IPL season the Sunrisers looked finished.
The elimination of SRH from this season’s IPL has triggered experts and analysts to wonder about what could have gone wrong. And finally, the reason for the team’s failure to qualify for the playoffs has come around.
Reason revealed
Now, there are many reasons why one of the best teams in IPL has shown its worst performance this year.
Firstly, David Warner is out of form consistently and the team’s middle-order has struggled throughout the season. However, with players like Rashid Khan, Jason Holder, and Sandeep Sharma, their bowling combination was quite good. Their pacer T Nataraj got COVID positive just before the second leg of the tournament was about to kick off. But all-in-all, the team did not play quite well since the beginning of the tournament, which is the main reason behind this performance.
Captain Kane Williamson admitted that this is one of the worst performances from the franchise. He also added that they have learned from the first half of the game, and would look for areas of improvement efficiently.
People are heartbroken about the franchise this year, but they are more disappointed for SRH co-owner Kaviya Maran. She has been enjoying a lot of attention from the netizens ever since she was first seen a couple of years ago. She has become a well-known face as the cameraman focuses on her innumerable times during the auction, or when she sits in the VIP box to watch the matches. One can see numerous tweets that show people’s disappointment as they will not be able to see her in the IPL playoffs.
Do they still have a chance?
Sunrisers Hyderabad, however, has four more games left in the remaining IPL tournament. And if they are still thinking about qualifying, this is a do-or-die situation for them. After their defeat in the hands of the Delhi Capitals led by Rishabh Pant, they needed to win every single match thereafter. After they failed to chase just 125 runs, not only will the team have to win all the remaining matches, but the other teams fighting for a spot would also have to lose or win according to their convenience.
This is the first time since IPL 2015 when Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to qualify for the playoffs. Given the situation, all their fans have lost hope in the team now. The team truly needs a major reshuffle and it is expected that the franchise would go for some quality picks in the 2022 mega auction.