Powerplay malfunction puts SRH on the brink

There are partnerships that go at more than two runs per ball, and there are partnerships that delight cricketing purists. Rarely do you get one that ticks both boxes.

The 87-run stand between Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan in Friday's game between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) was a rare example. It came off just 41 balls, and it included 13 fours and two sixes. All those boundaries came inside the powerplay, and they came off these shots, as per ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data: six pulls, three flicks, two cover drives, a straight drive, a steer, a dab and a cut.

That the sixth-highest powerplay score of IPL 2025 (82 for no loss) came up without any slogs, scoops or reverse hits was remarkable, and the first instinct of the viewer might be to hail the quality of the batting. And that wouldn't be wrong: Gill and Sai Sudharsan have both been in stellar ball-striking form throughout the season, and Friday's partnership overflowed with silken timing and pinpoint placement.

Watch those highlights again, though, and you'll also see that so much of the timing and placement came off bad bowling from SRH. Mohammed Shami set the tone in the first over with a half-volley drifting onto Gill's toes - duly flicked for six - and the errors in line and length kept coming, over after over.

Shami gave Sai Sudharsan width and then overcompensated during a 20-run third over. Then SRH captain Pat Cummins came on and bowled three floaty half-volleys to Gill in the fourth, before Harshal Patel delivered a half-volley, a full-toss and a hip-high short ball angling down leg to Sai Sudharsan in the fifth.

Cummins put an extraordinarily high number to the cost of SRH's bad balls through the powerplay.

"Our powerplay with the ball wasn't too great," he said on the broadcast. "I'm probably as guilty as anyone there. [We] probably let them get 20 or 30 extra just with some bad balls. Maybe hang on to one or two catches throughout the middle, again I'm guilty there, and maybe chasing 200 looks a bit more realistic." As it happened, SRH had to chase 225.

Cummins was then asked about the challenge of bowling to Sai Sudharsan and Gill, who now sit first and fourth in the Orange Cap standings.

"They're class batters," Cummins said. "They don't do anything outlandish. If you bowl bad balls they just put it away, and we probably dished up too many bad balls. They're quality, they know this venue well, so yeah, we just weren't quite at our best."

Gill and Sai Sudharsan are hugely gifted batters, but they are throwbacks of a sort. They score quicker than the kind of batter who would have been called an anchor five years ago, but they are still more reluctant than many other IPL opening pairs to relinquish control in the search for accelerated boundary-hitting.

On Friday, the perfect storm of finely tuned batting rhythm, excellent batting conditions and ordinary bowling gave them the best of both worlds: 15 boundaries within the powerplay as well as a control percentage of nearly 92. At one point, Sai Sudharsan was batting with a strike rate of 244 and a control percentage of 100.

Of the 12 powerplays this season that have ended with 75-plus scores, GT's on Friday was the only one with a 90-plus control percentage.

That graphic demands a closer look. First, note the four powerplays marked in blue - SRH were the bowling side on all those occasions. They have been at the receiving end of a third of the 12 highest-scoring powerplays of IPL 2025.

Now look at the concentration of blue near the top of the graphic. Of the 12 highest-scoring powerplays this season, the three with the highest control percentages have involved SRH's bowlers.

It's no coincidence, then, that SRH have the worst powerplay economy rate (10.65) of any team this season. Sometimes, high economy rates can be a factor of bowling at a high-scoring home ground, or of coming up against two or three outstanding top-order displays, on days when even good balls disappear. There seems to be a case, however, to say that SRH's powerplay bowling has been a genuine problem area.

Shami has epitomised this. He conceded 48 in three overs on Friday, and didn't get to bowl a fourth over for the sixth time in nine matches. It's now been more than five months since his return to action following his year-long injury layoff, but he still doesn't seem to have regained the zip off the surface that makes him so dangerous when his body is fresh and his action is in sync. With five Tests in England looming, India will be worried.

For the time being it is SRH who will worry, not just about Shami but the rest of their attack too, particularly in the first six overs. There has been so much attention paid to SRH's top order this season, and their falling-off after a relentlessly record-breaking 2024. Their bowling issues haven't been spoken about quite as much, but they may have played just as big a role in the predicament they find themselves in.