IPL 2023: We are letting us down because of lack of intent – Aiden Markram after loss against DC

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Aiden Markram lashed out at his batters after they could not chase down a below-par score of 145 runs against Delhi Capitals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket, Hyderabad on Monday, following their seven-run loss.

The South African feels they are letting themselves down because of lack of intent. The target of 145 should have been a cakewalk for the home team but they ended up making a mess of it.

The hosts were 69-1 but slipped to 85-5 as they failed to get going. SRH kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the required run rate kept soaring high.

The middle order failed to deliver for the Orange Army as Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, and Abhishek Sharma were dismissed cheaply. Heinrich Klaasen and Washington Sundar tried their best in the end but they were left too much to do in the final few overs.

Axar Patel and Anrich Nortje scalped two wickets apiece for DC whereas Kuldeep Yadav and Ishant Sharma also bowled economical spells. 13 runs were required off the final over and Mukesh Kumar held his nerves and bowled a terrific over to concede only five runs.

On the other hand, SRH bowlers had done a fantastic job as they had restricted DC to a sub-par score of 144-9 after David Warner had decided to bat first. SRH’s pack leader Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the most miser spell of IPL 2023, conceding only 11 runs in his quota of four overs and also took two wickets but unfortunately his efforts went in vain.

Aiden Markram said in the post-match presentation, “Not good with the bat. Not enough intent, not excited to win a game of cricket unfortunately. We have to go back and see how we can be free and be better. It is difficult, you can say all the right things but guys have to buy into it. We want to play a certain brand of cricket and if we get it wrong doing that then we’ll sleep a lot better at night.”

He added, “Tonight we lacked intent, unfortunately, we are letting us down because of a lack of intent. I would love to do that to be honest, something I quite enjoy doing, guys need to work hard [on motivating the team]. Incredibly proud of them, kept it pretty simple and used the conditions really well. Our bowling does not deserve to be on the losing side but a small bit of positivity I suppose.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad will once again take on Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Saturday.