'That's not acceptable in T20 cricket...' - Warner unhappy with SRH performance against KKR in IPL 2020

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner was critical of the ‘dot balls’ played by his team’s batsman during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Warner said that SRH batsmen played too many dot balls during the middle overs while adding it was “unacceptable” in T20 cricket. 

SRH opted to bat first after winning the toss and posted a modest total of 142/4 in 20 overs. Warner scored 36 while Manish Pandey registered a half-century. However, given the wickets left in hand, SRH were around 20-30 runs short. 

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“We need to push as hard as we can. You can see from our running between the wickets, we do that. But we got to improve our boundary percentage. I think I saw 35 dot balls, which is not acceptable in T20 cricket on a wicket that was actually nice to bat on. We just mis-executed in the middle,” Warner said in the post-match press conference. 

However, Warner backed his decision to bat first against KKR as he said SRH’s main strength lies in their bowling department.

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“I think I got my decision right. For us, our strength is death bowling. I thought it was actually a difficult wicket to accelerate on. The Kolkata boys showed us that if you can keep wickets at the end, that’s what wins you games. I don’t regret what I did at the beginning of the game and I stick by my decision,” Warner told host broadcaster Star Sports in the post-match presentation.

SRH now have lost both of their matches in IPL 2020 and will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on Delhi Capitals on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.