Harsh call to drop Pandey: Warner

After a super over loss at the hands of Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday (April 25), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner said that it was a harsh call by the selectors to drop India batsman Manish Pandey. Left-handed batsman Virat Singh has been playing ahead of Pandey in the last few games after the Karnataka batsman, who has scored 101 runs in three innings at a strike-rate of 112.22. Criticised often for his slow starts and poor strike-rates, Pandey was finally given the axe and young Virat Singh has been preferred ahead of him in the last couple of games or so.

"It depends on the selectors, it was a harsh call as per my opinion," Warner said after the match against DC, perhaps pointing towards VVS Laxman and Trevor Baylliss, given that they have a huge say in team selections.

However, Warner reckons Virat is a good player and deserves his playing time as well. "But at the end of the day it is a decision that they took and you cannot discredit Virat. He's a very good player and the surface was difficult. They bowled well in the middle and made it challenging for us," Warner came to the young man's defence.

Prithvi Shaw, who won the player of the match for his 39-ball 53, said that the pitch slowed down after powerplay and felt that 160 was a good total. "It was a good wicket in the first six overs and then slowed down a little bit. I felt the wicket was slow and the spinners were bowling well. It was not easy to score against Rashid," Shaw said.

"I thought 160 was good to defend, but a close game. I'm just doing the stuff that I have worked with. I didn't think about the Super Over, and I think Axar bowled really well in that Super Over. I wasn't there [for the Super Over meeting]. I knew Rashid will bowl for sure and Shikhar and Pant will open for sure," he added.

With this win, DC are level on points with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who have eight points from five matches. SRH, on the other hand, having just one in five, find themselves in seventh position.