We didn't adjust to conditions quickly enough - Bravo

Gujarat Lions allrounder Dwayne Bravo admitted that his side's batsmen failed to adapt to the swing and a two-paced track, and the Test-match lines bowled by Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers in Hyderabad on Friday. Lions suffered their third straight loss after being restricted to 126 for 6 by Sunrisers, who went on to win the match with five wickets to spare.

In conditions that favoured swing, the Sunrisers seam attack of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rahman stifled Lions. Bhuvneshwar and Mustafizur prised out Lions' top order, leaving them at 26 for 3 at the end of the Powerplay, and it was only Aaron Finch's unbeaten 42-ball 51 at No. 5 that lifted the score to 126. Bravo chipped in with 18 off 20 balls and shared a 45-run fifth-wicket partnership with Finch.

"I think we didn't adjust quickly. When you look at their IPL games, few of the games played here in Hyderabad, it's always a high-scoring game. It's a high-scoring venue," Bravo said after the match. "So I think the batsmen maybe took it in mind that 'okay, it's another high-scoring game', but it wasn't. It was a different surface, the conditions were more challenging for batting and we, as batsmen, as international players, we didn't adapt quickly enough.

"Instead of trying to get 175-180, we could've easily tried to get 135-140 and it could've been a winning total. It's a learning process and definitely we have to regroup as a team and adjust to all these situations because you can't keep playing like every game you try to get 180 and 190, that's not going to be possible."

The highest score by a team batting first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal in IPL 2016 so far has been 194, scored by Sunrisers against Royal Challengers Bangalore. In three of the six matches at the ground until now, teams batting first have scored 142 twice and 143 once, and Bravo stated that a total close to 146 would have been a match-winning one.

"It was very good bowling. You've got to give credit where credit is due. I think the way Bhuvi bowled his first over… we all know once the condition is in his favour, it's very difficult to play him. He's one of the best swing bowlers in the world," he said. "You've got to give credit. I think Ashish backs it up very well. They bowled well to us, they bowled Test-match areas.

"The ball was doing a bit early on, so it was very difficult to score. To contain Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum, two of the world's most dangerous players, definitely you've got to be doing something good. I think it was a very challenging wicket, but at the same time, we're all professional cricketers, so we can't give no excuses with our batting display. I think we were 20 runs short."