IPL 2023: Rahul Tripathi's knock takes pressure off the batting unit, opines SRH skipper Aiden Markram

Hyderabad, April 10 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Aiden Markram had a word of praise from teammate Rahul Tripathi, who despite a sluggish start, managed to play an aggressive game, saying that the latter took pressure off the batting unit with his knock.

Tripathi played a brilliant counter-attacking knock of an unbeaten 74 off 48 balls. Together, Markram and Tripathi stitched a 100-run partnership off 52 balls that led to the completion of the game with almost three overs left.

With 47 needed off 36, Markram and Tripathi took on Mohit Rathee and hit him for three boundaries and a six to bring the equation down to 26 off 30. It was a cruise from then on as Markram hit four fours off Nathan Eliis and then Tripathi finished it off with another four to win the match by 8 wickets.

"It was just down to Rahul being Rahul, he played an incredible knock for us. He played an incredible knock today. I did speak to him and he told me that he was struggling to rotate strike initially but once he got a feel of the pitch, he put the bowlers under pressure like he always does. Really happy for him. He takes a lot of pressure off the batting unit and his form is exciting for us as a team," Markram said in a post-match presser.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Marco Jansen gave SRH the perfect start as they ripped through the PBKS top order inside the Powerplay. Markande and Umran Malik carried forward the momentum in the middle overs and rattled the middle and lower middle order before Shikhar Dhawan dragged PBKS to a respectable 143/9.

Markram was pleased with his side's performance and said: "It's tough to say what changed from previous games, but the execution on the field was better tonight. We had plans in earlier games too but couldn't execute them properly. Today, I thought we were on point, especially the bowling performance. We took wickets with the new ball, took wickets in the powerplay, and put them under pressure. Then a great spell of spin bowling by Mayank."

He further explained the reason behind sending Harry Brooks to open the innings with Mayank Agarwal. "He has been in great form pretty much wherever he has played in the last 12-18 months. It's about him freeing himself in the powerplay, hitting cricket shots like he does.

"He doesn't play a high-risk brand of cricket; he generally just plays normal cricket shots hard and in the gap. So we thought that if he could do that in powerplay, we could maximise it. That was the thinking behind the move."

With a win over PBKS, Sunrisers picked up their first win of the season and look to continue the form when they face Kolkata Knight Riders on April 14.