Bengaluru: It’s the smile. Muttiah Muralitharan sits so high on the totem pole amongst bowlers that he is able to break into a smile at every given instant. It’s another matter that he is long retired from the game.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling coach who has a phenomenal 800 wickets from Tests has seen it all in his illustrious career. It’s the reason he’s able to smile despite his team getting knocked out of the Eliminator in a six-over finish by the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“(It’s) unfortunate the rain came, we can’t complain,” said Murali at the eerie hour of 2 am on Thursday morning. “It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t our year. Let’s see if we can get the same team next year, I don’t know what the rules are going to be,” said the Sri Lankan.
Though the Sunrisers were restricted to 128/7 given the conditions, a full contest may have been more close or seen a different finish.
“We all prefer 20 overs. We had a very good season. The batsmen played well, the bowlers who we picked at the auction did well. Satisfied with the performance. Eight wins and five losses before this. It doesn’t always go your way. We have to take it on the chin.”
David Warner’s Sunrisers will have mixed emotions about the venue.
They won their title here last season, faced a washed out match this season before being done in by the rain and D/L method against KKR. Hypothetically, if SRH had won against RCB in the league stages and not shared the point, things may have been different.
“Had we played and won, we wouldn’t have been playing here, we would have played in Mumbai. (Again a big smile). It’s destiny. Had it rained 20 minutes extra, we would have gone through. It’s all about destiny. We tried hard, and it happened.”
The M. Chinnaswamy turf has been demanding in that batsmen have had to struggle in search of runs. Murali hit the nail on the head.
“Overall, Bangalore wicket have been low-scoring. 130, I thought, was par. Across 20 overs, we had a chance of defending it. With the wetness, the ball skids a lot. The surface was up and down. But this is part and parcel of the game. They won the toss, so they deserved to win.”
