Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody revealed that after taking a blow on the right hand, their lone specialist spinner Washington Sundar was in a situation where he couldn't bowl against Chennai Super Kings at MCA Stadium in Pune on Sunday. In the first innings, while trying to save a boundary at deep square leg, Sundar took a blow to his bowling hand, where a split webbing had caused him to miss three matches previously and went off the field immediately. Sundar hadn't even bowled a ball till then and with him off the field, captain Kane Williamson had to turn to part-time off-spin of Aiden Markram, who leaked 36 runs in his three overs while Shashank Singh gave away 10 runs in his one over. Though Sundar came out to bat and made just two runs, his availability for Hyderabad's next match against Delhi Capitals is under huge doubt now.
"Its very unfortunate for him that he got a knock on the same hand where he split his webbing and had stitches. He's healed completely but he just re-injured the same area. It doesn't need restitching, but unfortunately, he was in a state where he couldn't bowl. Incredibly unlucky for him. It did really have an impact on us in the early phase of the bowling innings given how critical a role he plays for us in the first ten overs," said Moody in the post-match virtual press conference. Hyderabad also had to miss out on the services of left-arm pacer T Natarajan, who went off the field after bowling the fifth over to receive treatment for an injury before returning to bowl in the death overs, taking out Ruturaj Gaikwad and MS Dhoni. Moody felt that the absence of Sundar and Natarajan put Williamson under pressure. "When you lose one of your important bowlers, whether its spinner or not, is a massive blow to the side.
At the time, we also had Natarajan off with an injury which was taking some time before he could come back on (the field). Basically, we had seven overs which haven't been bowled by frontline bowlers up to the 14-15th overs. It was very difficult for Kane to manage in the middle. We chased a score that was probably 20-30 runs more than it should have been." For tearaway pacer Umran Malik, it was a match to forget as Gaikwad (99 off 57 balls) used his pace well to time eye-catchy boundaries off him, scoring 33 runs off Malik's 13 balls. Moody felt that the match against Chennai would serve as a good learning experience for Malik. "It was a good innings by him (Gaikwad), no question about it. He is a high-quality player and we know that he wouldn't be sitting on the sidelines for a long time. He obviously had a plan against Umran. It was a good lesson for Umran, he is still young and learning."