Brian Lara gives his take on SRH's decision to allow part-timer to bowl 16th over

Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday suffered a damaging defeat against the Lucknow Super Giants, prolonging their woeful home record in IPL 2023. The team has lost seven out of their 11 matches so far and is unlikely to qualify for the playoff stage. SRH head coach Brian Lara expressed dissatisfaction with the team’s production and believed they should be in the higher zone on the points table. He attributed their poor performance to their inability to close off matches and wasting decent chances in their previous outings.

"It's a situation where we should be sitting down pretty high on this table. We've had some close games and games that entering the final strides of the game, we were ahead. And we did not close it off. It's fair to say we could have been well-placed in this tournament and it's not the case now. We've got three games left and we've got to get the guys motivated to get results in these three games," Lara mentioned in the post-match press conference.

In their previous match against LSG, the Telangana-based team had the upper hand for much of the game. But they failed to maintain their momentum in the death overs, allowing Krunal Pandya’s side to clinch a memorable victory in Hyderabad. Lara acknowledged their deficiencies and hoped the team could still make it to the playoffs, despite being at the ninth position in the IPL 2023 points table.

Brian Lara's take on Abhishek Sharma bowling 16th over

Lara also gave his thoughts on the controversial decision to have Abhishek Sharma bowl the 16th over. He yielded 31 runs, which changed the game’s complexion in just six deliveries. It became the joint-most expensive over in the current edition of the IPL. Although it did not work out in SRH‘s favor, Lara supported his captain’s decision and felt that they needed a spinner to bowl that over, given the team’s faith in their fast bowlers to get the job done.

"I suppose you can say that now, in hindsight. Obviously, it did not work out for us. It was a stage where we had one over of spin to bowl. We always back our fast bowlers to get the job done. So we knew that one over was going to be attacked. Unfortunately, all six or seven balls they had an opportunity to score," he added.

Image: BCCI