After suffering a six-wicket loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson said that the pitch was a challenging one and the new ball sat on the surface, which made run-scoring quite difficult.
"It was a challenging surface; it was hard to get your rhythm on because of the tennis-ball bounce. Particularly with the new ball, it sat on the surface and I think it reflected in the low strike rates which have been quite interesting in the second half of the tournament," said Williamson while replying to an ANI query during a virtual post-match press conference.
"The surfaces have varied quite a lot and I think we have seen that teams that have been successful have been able to adapt to those surfaces.
"For us against KKR, we struggled to do that. We got through the powerplay and there was an opportunity to build towards 140-150 total and obviously, we fell short of that. Once again, it is important for us not to overreact and overcorrect. It has definitely been a challenging season for us in that aspect," he added.
Earlier, a spirited bowling performance helped KKR restrict SRH to 115/8 in the allotted twenty overs. For the Eoin Morgan-led side, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy returned with two wickets each while for SRH, Williamson top-scored with a knock of 26 runs.
"I suppose personally, standing in as skipper in the second half of the tournament, you do try to have a collective focus. There are a number of things around the corner that can take the attention of the players, but you know (that) as a team, we are fortunate enough to be here," said Williamson.
SRH will next lock horns against RCB on Wednesday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
With only two wins from 12 games -- and four points on the table -- this could possibly go down as the worst IPL performance for the Hyderabad franchise despite having the likes of batting stalwarts such as New Zealand's Williamson and Australian opener David Warner, who incidentally has not been included in the playing XI in the last couple of games here.
This is the first time SRH have failed to qualify for the IPL playoffs in five years and their problems from the first leg in India have returned to haunt them in the UAE as well. Williamson, who will be leading New Zealand at the ICC T20 World Cup later this month here, admitted that the side had not been able to iron out their shortcomings.