Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan was happy with his team’s performance in the Indian Premier League despite losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the eliminator in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The match between defending champions Hyderabad and Kolkata was interrupted by rain after Sunrisers had scored 128/7 in their 20 overs. When play resumed, KKR needed only 48 runs in six overs, which they chased down with seven wickets.

Muralitharan said that if they had bowled for 20 overs, the result could have gone their way. “I think overall if you see, the Bengaluru wicket this year was very low scoring. I thought 130 is a par score. I think with more runs on board and if you take two or three wickets in a 20-over game, we would have had a better chance than playing a six-over game. KKR deserve to win,” said the Sri Lankan bowling legend.

Advertisement

Muralitharan were short on runs as well as Hyderabad lost the match by seven wickets. “The wicket is not that great to play shots here, because if you had played your shots, you would have been bowled out for 70-80 runs. We were thinking about putting 140 runs, and if we had a 20-over game, we had the bowling to defend. Unfortunately, we were 10 runs short. They bowled well as well,” he said.

But, Muralitharan appreciated the excellent season the team had and way they played throughout the tournament. “Unfortunately, it was the rain, which you cannot complain about, and you need to move on because they played better. We had a very good season and we played well. However, unfortunately you need to go out sometimes when you are in the knockouts. Therefore, unfortunately this year is not our year. We will make sure if we can build the same team next year, comeback and fight for the trophy,” he said.

Muralitharan was happy by the performances of the players especially the bowlers as well. “Our batsmen batted well, the bowlers, who were picked in the auction, did well as well. Therefore, we are satisfied with our players along with our performance as well,” he said.

“We also won eight matches or something, while we just lost five matches, along with this loss. We won it last year, and that is not going to happen every time. Every team tries hard. Therefore, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We take it on the chin and say ‘Ok, it’s not our year’. I also congratulate all the players who played really well for us.”