IPL 2026 | One of our poorer bowling performances, we gave scoring chances to Kohli, Devdutt: SRH coach Daniel Vettori

Bengaluru: Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori labelled his side's bowling display against Royal Challengers Bengaluru as "poor", conceding they allowed Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli far too many scoring opportunities in the IPL opener here.

After raising 201 for 9 in the season-opener on Saturday, the Hyderabad side could not tackle the marauding Padikkal and Kohli, watching RCB romp home in just 15.4 overs.

"You have to get a good start (with the ball), which we did against (Phil) Salt, but then I just think we weren't at our best with the ball. We weren't as disciplined as we needed to be, and we gave a lot of scoring opportunities to Virat and Padikkal, who played exceptionally well," Vettori said in the post-match press conference.

"We should have been able to maintain a little bit more (discipline) after getting that important wicket of Salt. So, it was a very good batting performance by RCB and one of our poorer bowling performances," he added.

Vettori said SRH had observed how well RCB pacer Jacob Duffy bowled but the visiting bowlers could not implement their plans effectively.

"I think we learned a lot from how RCB bowled and what was effective and what wasn't, but we just weren't able to implement that. You don't want to have a rusty performance because of how important every game is in the IPL, particularly how to start.

"But today was one of our challenging bowling displays. We saw at the back end when we started to go back to our usual disciplines that we could actually be effective and take some wickets. But I think we just missed our lengths too much. Duffy in particular showed the length to bowl on that surface," he said.

Vettori hoped that young bowlers such as left-arm pacer David Payne and left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey will come good in coming matches.

The Hyderabad side managed to cross 200, but on a flat Chinnaswamy surface the total was vastly inadequate, and Vettori admitted as much.

“I think 200, maybe a couple of years ago you'd think you're safe for 200, but I think we understand where the game's gone and how destructive that RCB batting line-up is.” Indirectly, the Kiwi was hinting that he was expecting a lot more from SRH top-order comprising Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen.

While Kishan and Klaasen played handy knocks, both the SRH openers fell cheaply putting pressure on the middle-order.

However, Vettori said he still has a lot of trust in his batting line-up.

“We've got a lot of trust in our batting unit. You see Aniket (Verma) coming in at seven and being still able to be aggressive and put us in a position where we had a chance of a defendable total. I think the fact that we don't expect Abhi and Trav to do it every game, we expect them to do it, win a couple of games a season, and we hand that off to all of the batting unit.

“So that top seven's incredibly impressive, and even after that tough start to get to 200 shows the calibre of that group. I think they've just got confidence that they can go out there and play that style, and they understand that we need big scores because of the nature of the IPL these days,” he noted.

Vettori said England all-rounder Brydon Carse suffered a hit on his hand at nets, but is recovering well.

“He got hit on the hand in the nets when he was batting, on his bowling hand, cleared of any break, but quite a lot of swelling, and he tried to push for the game, but it was difficult for him to hold the ball.

"So he's been improving, so we're hoping he's available for selection for Kolkata,” he added.