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Internet Desk: Muttiah Muralitharan , the coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad felt that his team could have won the Eliminator which they played against Kolkata Knight Riders if rain hadn’t distressed the game.
The Eliminator game that was played at Bangalore was often troubled by heavy downpour. After winning the toss, the Kolkata side elected to field first and restricted Hyderabad for 128 runs and then won the game when a revised target of 48 was set in 6 overs.
“I think overall if you see, the Bengaluru wicket this year was very low scoring. I thought 130 is a par score. I think with more runs on board and if you take two or three wickets in a 20-over game, we would have had a better chance than playing a six-over game,” Muralitharan told reporters at the post-match press conference here.
The legendary spinner felt that his team fell short of 10 runs.
“The wicket is not that great to play shots here, because if you had played your shots, you would have been bowled out for 70-80 runs. We were thinking about putting 140 runs, and if we had a 20-over game, we had the bowling to defend.
Unfortunately, we were 10 runs short. They bowled well as well,” he said.
“We have all seen on this wicket this season, even while defending 130, teams have won,” he added.
Muralitharan said the team had a very good season and played well.
“Unfortunately, it was the rain, which you cannot complain about, and you need to move on because they played better. We had a very good season and we played well.
“However, unfortunately you need to go out sometimes when you are in the knockouts. Therefore, unfortunately this year is not our year. We will make sure if we can build the same team next year, comeback and fight for the trophy,” he said.
Muralitharan reiterated that he is satisfied with the players’ performance.
“Our batsmen batted well, the bowlers, who were picked in the auction, did well as well. Therefore, we are satisfied with our players along with our performance as well,” he said.
The Lankan spin legend Muralitharan also said, “We also won eight matches or something, while we just lost five matches, along with this loss. We won it last year, and that is not going to happen every time. Every team tries hard.
Therefore, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We take it on the chin and say ‘Ok, it’s not our year’. I also congratulate all the players who played really well for us.