IPL 2018: The Secrets behind SRH's defensive excellence

#1 Seam bowling reserves

A bowling attack that loses two of its best bowlers is unlikely to be much of a threat to batting line-ups in the IPL but for SRH, the dual loss of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake did not have that sort of an impact. In came Sandeep Sharma and his swing, seam movement and accuracy allowed SRH to replace the same attributes that Kumar offered at the start of the innings. Stanlake was replaced by Basil Thampi and his pace, coupled with inch-perfect yorkers at the death has made him one of the most important members of the bowling attack. He regularly keeps things tight at the death.

No other team can boast of such seam bowling reserves and a lot of the credit has to go to the team management, who seemed to be hell-bent on stockpiling domestic fast bowlers in the auction this year. Last but certainly not the least, the performance of Siddharth Kaul has been magnificent over the course of the tournament and following the absence of the two premier fast bowlers, he has lifted his game. He went for less than 6 runs an over in these three games and picked up 5 wickets to provide the perfect cover for the other bowlers. It is a peerless bowling attack.