Delhi Capitals all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has defended his side's Indian batters after they failed to resurrect the run chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad, saying the game was not lost due to their inexperience and the 198-run target was "far too many" in the end.
In a sensational all-round effort, Marsh scalped four wickets and then struck a breezy 39-ball 63 but once he was dismissed DC imploded with the inexperienced Indian players failing to score the required runs as they lost by nine runs.
"We got a lot of belief in all of our players. There's some inexperienced players in our lineup, but you got to have faith, you got to throw those guys in there and I don't think the game was lost there tonight. There were certain areas of our game where we lost the game. That certainly wasn't one of them," Marsh said at the post-match press conference.
"If you look back at our season, we can't blame anyone but we've lost a couple of really close games. It's extremely hard to win games in IPL. And unfortunately, we've been on the wrong side of a couple of really close ones.
"But there are a few positives coming out tonight. But ultimately, I think chasing 195 was probably far too many on that wicket."
Abhishek Sharma (67) and Heinrich Klaasen (53) set up the win for SRH with explosive knocks.
"I think his (Klaasen) innings certainly was a game-changing innings, to be able to go out there on that wicket and start the way he did and take the game on to the fence. He's been in very good form for Hyderabad. So fair play to him," said the Player of the match.
"Ultimately, I still think that wasn't a 195 wicket so we'll have to assess a few areas of that."
Harry will be one of the biggest names in world cricket: Badani
While Abhishek and Klaasen looked in good nick, the rest of the SRH top and middle order including Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi and Harry Brook continued to disappoint.
"It's a question of momentum, it's about getting back in touch. I’m a firm believer that it's a question of one knock in the middle then it falls back into the picture," SRH batting coach Hemang Badani said during the press conference.
"I genuinely believe Harry will be one of the biggest names in world cricket."
SRH opener Mayank hasn't been consistent, having scored two 40 plus scores in his last eight innings.
"Mayank has been there for many years. He's led Punjab. Somebody of his stature, he just needs a bit of nudging here and there, fine-tuning and it’s a question of time. He's not out of touch, he’s a serious player."
Overall Badani was satisfied with the batting effort of his team.
"I liked the intent we had. I think probably just for the second time in the entire season we’ve got about 60 on the board in the powerplay. I'm pretty pleased with the target that we put on the board. If you look at other teams as well if a team posts a good target, not all of their five batters score runs. It's always two or three batters standing up."
DC were on course for a win with Marsh and Phil Salt (59) going great guns at one stage and Badani said SRH changed their bowling plan during the timeout break.
"I'd be lying if I said we weren't pensive. We were worried seeing them put runs and batting at a canter. But when we had the timeout break, the message that was given to the bowlers that a lot of DC batters were playing on the backfoot and we were giving them pace and the length was slightly shorter. We tried passing on to the guys to bowl slower ones and spin the ball. When you are able to break a partnership then the floodgates open and that was one of those things that happened today."
