New Delhi: Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori He did not mince words after his team’s defeat in the IPL 2026 opener, calling their bowling performance “a poor performance after our six-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday”.Push boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!Despite posting a competitive 201/9 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, SRH were still chasing the shadows as RCB stormed home in just 15.4 overs by Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkar.Vettori admitted that the game began to slip away after an early breakthrough and SRH failed to maintain control. “You have to get off to a good start and we did that against Phil Salter, but we weren’t at our best with the ball. We weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be,” he said.The former New Zealand captain highlighted how the bowlers allowed too many scoring chances. “We gave Virat and Padikkar a lot of scoring chances and they performed very well,” he added.Even if Phil Salt was removed early, SRH could not create pressure. “We should be able to stay more disciplined after that wicket,” Vettori noted, stressing that inconsistency in length proved costly.Missed the length, missed the opportunityVettori pointed out that execution was the key differentiator, especially after looking at the efficiency of RCB’s bowling. “We learned a lot from RCB’s bowling… but we just couldn’t implement it,” he said.He singled out freshman Jacob Duffy for setting the standard. “Duffy in particular showed the length of the pitches on that surface,” Vettori said, contrasting it with SRH’s inability to consistently hit the right areas.“We just missed our length too much. Today was one of our challenging bowling performances,” he admitted, adding that SRH found some rhythm only towards the end.200 is no longer enough in ChinnaswamyVettori also admitted that 200 is no longer a safe total on a pitch suitable for batting. “Maybe a few years ago you would have thought 200 was safe, but we understand where the game is going and how destructive the RCB batting line-up can be,” he said.While bowling is under scrutiny, Vettori backed his batting team, highlighting the contribution of players like Anikot Verma and the depth of the top order.With young bowlers like David Payne and Harsh Dubey still finding their feet, SRH will be looking to regroup quickly.
