“I found it a bit surprising” - SRH batting coach Hemang Badani on Kuldip Yadav bowling 19th over for RR

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) batting coach Hemang Badani commented that he found Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) decision to give the 19th over to Kuldip Yadav in Sunday’s (May 8) IPL 2023 match somewhat surprising. According to Badani, if he was in the Rajasthan camp, he would have preferred the more experienced Obed McCoy.

With SRH needing 41 runs off 12 balls, Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson decided to give the penultimate over to inexperienced pacer Kuldip. The 26-year-old was clobbered for three sixes and a four by Glenn Phillips (25 off 7). Abdul Samad (17* off seven) then hit two sixes in the last over to lift Hyderabad to an unlikely win.

Speaking at a post-match press conference, Badani expressed surprise over RR’s tactics. He opined:

“If I had to bring in an impact player [McCoy], I might have brought him into the game a little earlier. They bowled one of him and then they went to Kuldip. Maybe, you would rather go to your experienced bowler. Kuldip is still learning his trait, but McCoy has been around for a little while.

"I found it a wee bit surprising that they went towards Kuldip and not to McCoy.”

The former India batter asserted that SRH were confident of chasing 215, given the nature of the surface. About what was said in the camp during the strategic time-out, he stated:

“The talk was that this surface is a good surface. [Ravichandran] Ashwin had finished his fourth over by the 14th. We felt just the couple of overs of [Yuzvendra] Chahal that we had to ensure that we didn’t lose too many.

“We fancied our chances because we knew Sandeep [Sharma] had one, Kuldip would have had to bowl. They brought in Obed later. We felt that this was a surface where the medium pacers could be taken down.”

McCoy was brought in as the impact sub by RR but ended up bowling only one over in which he gave away 13 runs.

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“It is a great win for us because it gives us momentum” - SRH batting coach

Reflecting on the triumph, Badani asserted that the result will give them momentum after they went down in a few close games earlier.

The 46-year-old said:

“It is a great win for us because it gives us momentum. A few games could have been a lot different for us, especially the last game against KKR in which we needed 9 off the last over. We could not finish that. Also the game against Delhi at home should have been finished by us.

"We’ve actually been on the other end of things with regard to finishing games, but this will obviously give us confidence.”

SRH are placed ninth in the IPL 2023 points table, with four wins from 10 matches.