New Delhi: Head Coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad Daniel Vettori did not mince words after his side’s defeat in the IPL 2026 opener, describing his bowling effort as “one of our poor performances” after Saturday’s six-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.Go beyond limits with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!Despite posting a competitive 201/9 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, SRH were left chasing as RCB cruised home in just 15.4 overs. Virat Kohli and Devdatta Padikal.Vettori admitted that the game slipped away after the initial breakthrough, with SRH unable to maintain control. “You have to get off to a good start, which we did against (Phil) Salt, but we weren’t the best with the ball. We weren’t as disciplined as we should have been,” he said.The former New Zealand captain highlighted how the bowlers allowed too many scoring opportunities. “We gave a lot of scoring opportunities to Virat and Padikal, who played exceptionally well,” he added.Even after removing full salt early, SRH could not build pressure. “We should have been able to maintain a bit more discipline after that wicket,” Vettori said, stressing that the length inconsistency proved costly.Lost length, lost opportunityVettori pointed to execution as the key difference, especially after seeing how effectively RCB bowled. “We learned a lot from how RCB bowled… but we couldn’t execute it,” he said.He chose debutant Jacob Duffy to set the benchmark. “Duffy in particular has shown the length to bowl at this level,” Vettori said, contending with SRH’s inability to consistently hit in the right places.“We lost our length a lot. Today was one of our challenging bowling displays,” he admitted, adding that SRH only found some rhythm towards the end.200 is no longer enough for Channaswami.Vettori also admitted that 200 is no longer a safe total at batting surfaces. “Perhaps a few years ago you would have thought 200 was safe, but we understand where the game has gone and how devastating RCB’s batting line-up is.”When the bowling was scrutinized, Vettori backed his batting unit, highlighting the contributions of players like Aniket Verma and the depth in the top order.With young bowlers like David Payne and Harsh Dubey still finding their feet, SRH will look to regroup quickly.
