Indian veteran point guard Zaheer Khan (Twitter/ @ImZaheer Image)
Zaheer Khan has praised Abhishek Sharma for his approach to the top of the order, saying SRH should stick to opening up with him.
Veteran Indian pacer Zaheer Khan believes Sunrisers Hyderabad should stay with Abhishek Sharma at the top of the batting order after his impressive performance against Delhi Capitals. Abhishek scored a sublime 67 runs on 36 balls as he supported the Capitals bowlers early on and hit 12 boundaries and a six. The Sunrisers ended their three-game losing streak with a 9-point win over the Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
It was a clash between the two worst-placed teams and the Sunrisers managed to defend the 198-point goal and limited the hosts to 188/6.
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JioCinema IPL expert Zaheer praised Sharma for his approach to the top of the order, saying SRH should stick to opening with him.
“He should keep hitting top of the order even though (Harry) Brook has scored a hundred. IPL is such a tournament that you pay dearly if you make mistakes at the top of the order. It takes a lot of planning to finalize these things before the tournament even starts,” Khan said.
“They went back to the pair of Mayank Agarwal and Sharma to open the innings today and it paid off. Brook’s promotion to the top earlier had led to a lot of confusion in their ranks. Even today I repeat that SRH are a very good team on paper but they are not producing the best results and it has to do with something unrelated to cricket. The way you approach games, the decisions you make are a big part of IPL,” Khan added.
Spinner Mayank Markande continued to impress for SRH, taking 2/20 in his four overs. His victims included dangerous-looking fly-half Phil Salt, who hit 59 of 35 balls. Its sleeves were interlaced with nine limits. Salt and Mitchell Marsh 63 runs (39b, 1×4, 6×6) put on 112 for the second wicket after skipper David Warner was knocked out for nil.
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Another JioCinema pundit, Scott Styris, also agreed with Zaheer and said the Sunrisers rectified the error by pushing Harry Brook down the middle order.
“Sharma is back to where he should be and Harry Brook is back to a place he’s more comfortable with. They’ve at least rectified the mistake they made.”
On the DC stick, Khan said: “Today we could see a six that landed right on the boundary rope but beyond that there were quite a few long shots. They opened today with Phil Salt and I’ve been saying since before the tournament started that it wouldn’t have been a bad option for them to open with Mitchell March.”
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