Hyderabad opener David Warner has cited that a tweak in the middle order against Delhi on Sunday made the difference as his side lost the game from being 101/3 to 116 all-out.
Captain Kane Williamson came back to fitness and was named in the starting XI, forcing Vijay Shankar to come down the order. Keeping the quota of four foreign players in mind, in-form all-rounder Mohammad Nabi was dropped to the bench, while Yusuf Pathan (32 runs in five innings) and Manish Pandey (54 runs in five innings) were forced out following string poor performances to bring in the likes of Ricky Bhui and Abhishek Sharma.
The decision – of changing the order - backfired as these three men could only scalp a mere total of 12 runs in 23 deliveries amongst themselves.
"I don't like hindsight. Today, there was a decision that they (the team management) made. I’m no longer part of that process, I don’t know what their thinking was but when you lose that experience in the middle, it can be quite challenging and quite difficult for the new guys that come in,” Warner said after the loss on Sunday.
As expected, Warner (51) and Bairstow (41) gave Hyderabad a decent start but barring these two men, no one could manage a score in double figure, with Bui being the highest scorer with a 12-ball 7.
"There are no excuses. We got off to a good start, we didn't capitalise on those middle periods, there were a lot of ones, not many twos, they (Capitals) shut down the boundaries well and they bowled very well. We just missed a couple of opportunities to hit boundaries through that middle period.”
Following three victories from their first four games, Hyderabad are now without a win in their last three fixtures, which has led to them slipping down to sixth, sitting only above Rajasthan and Bengaluru.
