Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori believes Devdutt Padikkal’s match-winning knock was the major difference between the two teams after they suffered a six-wicket loss against RCB at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday. 

Padikkal scored a brilliant knock of 61 runs off just 26 balls as he batted at his best. The left-hander scored seven fours and four sixes in his blistering knock, scoring at 234.62. Vettori said Padikkal took all the pressure off Virat Kohli with his whirlwind knock.

“Padikkal’s innings, I think. Came and hit the first ball fo six, striking over 200, taking on all bowlers, allowed Virat to get into his innings, even though he was striking quickly too. The impetus that he showed when he came in was the real difference,” Daniel Vettori said during the post-match press conference (via iplt20.com).

“Maybe a couple of years ago, you think you are safe with 200, but I do think we understand where the game has gone, and how destructive that RCB line-up is. You have to get a good start, which I think we did against Salt. but then, I juts think we were not at our best with the ball, we were not as disciplined as we needed to be. We gave a lot of scoring opportunities to Virat and Padikkal, who played exceptionally well,” he added.

On the other hand, Jacob Duffy was awarded Player of the Match after he returned with impressive figures of 3-22 in his quota of four overs. Vettori said Duffy showed the right length to bowl on the surface whereas their bowlers could not hit the right length.

“You don’t want to have a rusty performance because of how important every game is in the IPL, especially at the start. I think we missed our lengths, and Duffy, in particular, showed the length to bowl on that surface,” Vettori added.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday.