Toss Sunrisers Hyderabad chose to bowl v Delhi Capitals

Bhuvneshwar Kumar led Sunrisers Hyderabad again, in the absence of Kane Williamson, and chose to bowl with an unchanged side against Delhi Capitals. Capitals made three changes to their XI that lost to Kings XI Punjab three days ago.

The hosts picked a spin-heavy side - three in all - by bringing in Axar Patel and Rahul Tewatia on a pitch their captain Shreyas Iyer said would turn in the second innings. Ishant Sharma also came in as they left out Avesh Khan, Hanuma Vihari and Harshal Patel.

Iyer said he would have bowled first too, despite the collapses while chasing in their last two matches. He said it was "important to forget the past and move on." Bhuvneshwar admitted his side's bowling could make some improvements and chose to bowl so that his batsmen would know "how to approach the first six overs" and then go on from there.

The pitch looked dry without any grass and showed prominent cracks.

Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Chris Morris, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sandeep Lamichhane

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 2 David Warner, 3 Vijay Shankar, 4 Yusuf Pathan, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar (capt), 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Siddarth Kaul

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Are IPL games taking too long to finish? The coaches of two franchises certainly think so, and one of them, Tom Moody of Sunrisers Hyderabad, even has a suggestion as to how to improve over rates, borrowed from the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

In its 2018 season, the CPL introduced a novel penalty for slow over rates, mandating that 0.05 points be deducted from a team's net run rate if it fails to complete its overs within the allotted time frame. Moody wants the IPL to follow suit.

Currently, the IPL only hands out monetary fines for over-rate offences. Two captains have copped fines of INR 12 lakh so far this season: Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians' slow over rate against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali, and Ajinkya Rahane for Rajasthan Royals' tardiness in their away game against Chennai Super Kings.

Moody doesn't think fines are enough of a deterrent.

"Simple solution, forget monetary fines, deduct from teams net run rate," he tweeted, in response to a complaint from the former England captain Michael Vaughan that IPL games were taking too long to finish. "Works in the @CPL, players quickly recognise the value of NRR when it comes to qualifying for playoffs!"

Stephen Fleming, the Chennai Super Kings coach, also thinks teams need to get through their overs quicker.

"It's too slow," Fleming said, in his press conference after Super Kings' defeat to Mumbai Indians on Wednesday night. "I think it's got to be a collective shift from everybody - players as well as on-field monitoring. I think there's a little bit of broadcasting [at play] as well, there at times when you're waiting to come back. So collectively, the whole thing could be sped up.

"The moisture [because of dew] does play a part. We've had a couple of games which have been very dewy. Wiping the ball is a consideration. But I think cricket in general is played at a pace below where it needs to be. So I'd love to see all forms of the game increase the pace, even if it puts pressure on captains and bowlers, then so be it.

"Well, how do you do that? You manage a little bit more strictly on the field and also ask captains and bowlers to be a little bit surer of their plans. I think we are reaching up close to four hours, defeating the purpose of the short game."

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