SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) bowling coach James Franklin expressed his dissatisfaction, saying that his bowlers weren’t up to the mark in the death overs against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). SRH slumped to a record 80-run loss in their IPL 2025 match against KKR at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Franklin suggested that SRH didn’t bowl well in the second half of KKR’s innings, contradicting the remarks made by captain Pat Cummins, who expressed disappointment over the missed opportunity, believing that the target was well within reach.

“It’s likely a combination of both the assessment and the execution. For example, the 65 runs off the last four overs probably reflect that we didn’t get it quite right. At the halfway stage, KKR were 84 or 85 for two. If we’d managed the back 10 overs better, we probably could have kept them to 170-180, but we didn’t quite execute,” said the ex-New Zealand pacer.

“As a coach, sometimes you reflect and wonder, could we have done things better? Could we have been a bit braver in some aspects? Those are conversations we’ll have in the coming days before we go again on Sunday. It’s about reflecting, particularly with the players who were out there, and making sure we come back better, especially with our execution in the death overs,” he added.

After the match, Cummins also admitted that his team was far from its best

“Not a great night tonight. In the mid-innings break, we thought it was gettable. It was a pretty good wicket. Gave away a few too many in the field and obviously fell short (with the bat). You have to be realistic – three games in a row, it has not come off for us,” Cummins said after the match.

“Probably more (disappointed) with our fielding – a couple of catches, and a few misfields that we have to tidy up. Overall bowling was not bad, they batted well towards the end. We only bowled three overs of spin – did not think there was a lot of spin. Cutters were gripping (for the pacers), so they went down that path,” he added.

KKR became the first team in the Indian Premier League’s history to register 20-plus wins against three different teams following their resounding victory over SRH.

boasts 20 victories each against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. KKR has also stood victorious a whopping 21 times against Punjab Kings in the cash-rich league.

(With ANI Inputs)