‘A wake-up call to how the other sides take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad’ – Eoin Morgan feels RCB’s win gives other teams blueprint to beat SRH

Royal Challengers Bengaluru. (Source -IPL/BCCI)

Former England captain Eoin Morgan reckoned that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) winning the toss and opting to bat first didn’t allow Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to play to their strength on Thursday, April 25 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Sunrisers had the opportunity to bat first in five out of their first seven matches before the clash against RCB. Pat Cummins and Co. had an average first-innings score of 235. Their destructive batting line-up put the opposition bowlers to the sword and set totals which were near impossible to hunt down. However, on Thursday, RCB opted to bat first and they put the former champions under scoreboard pressure by setting a target of 207 runs. Eventually, the Orange Army were restricted to 171/8 as Faf du Plessis used his spinners tactfully to choke the flow of runs through the middle overs.

After RCB’s 35-run win, Morgan felt that winning the toss and opting to bat first was a vital decision. He felt that other teams could use this ploy against Sunrisers in the games to come.

“That can be a contributing factor (chasing led to SRH’s defeat?) alongside what the wicket has to go be. We saw what happened in Delhi, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, it was an absolute road. It was a pure shootout. In a pure shootout, they will come up trumps, majority of the time just because of the way they play,” Eoin Morgan said on Jio Cinema.

“So, I think the way RCB played is, I think, a wake-up call to how the other sides take on the SunRisers,” Morgan further added.

Also Read: IPL 2024: Sunrisers Hyderabad 2nd innings highlights against RCB in Match 41

It will be interesting to see if CSK go back to what works for them – the CSK squeeze: Eoin Morgan

Sunrisers will be heading to Chennai up next to face defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, April 28. Morgan noted that the pitches have been good for batting so far in Chennai. But he felt that the Super Kings could be beneficial if they played on a sluggish surface against the batting-dominant SRH side.

“They are going to go to Chennai next. Obviously, so far at the Chepauk, we have seen really good batting pitches. So it will be interesting to see if CSK go back to what works for them – the CSK squeeze. On a good pitch, we saw what Marcus Stoinis did the other night at the Chepauk in that chase,” concluded the former England captain.

Also Read: IPL 2024: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 41st Match – Who Said What?

Sunrisers have five wins and three losses under their belt and are placed at No. 3 on the points table. Meanwhile, Bengaluru, even after beating Hyderabad, remained at the bottom of the table with two victories and seven losses from nine games.