‘We weren’t at our best with ball’: SRH head coach Vettori after IPL opener defeat. (ANI Photo)

NEW DELHI: Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori didn’t mince words after his side’s IPL 2026 opener defeat, labelling their bowling effort as “one of our poorer performances” following a six-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Saturday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Despite posting a competitive 201/9 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, SRH were left chasing shadows as RCB stormed home in just 15.4 overs, powered by Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal.Vettori admitted the game slipped away after an early breakthrough, with SRH failing to maintain control. “You have to get a good start, which we did against (Phil) Salt, but we weren’t at our best with the ball. We weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be,” he said.The former New Zealand captain highlighted how the bowlers allowed too many scoring chances. “We gave a lot of scoring opportunities to Virat and Padikkal, who played exceptionally well,” he added.Even after removing Phil Salt early, SRH could not build pressure. “We should have been able to maintain a little bit more discipline after that wicket,” Vettori noted, stressing that inconsistency in lengths proved costly.Missed lengths, missed opportunityVettori pointed to execution as the key difference, especially after observing how effectively RCB bowled. “We learned a lot from how RCB bowled… but we just weren’t able to implement that,” he said.He singled out debutant Jacob Duffy for setting the benchmark. “Duffy in particular showed the length to bowl on that surface,” Vettori said, contrasting it with SRH’s inability to hit the right areas consistently.“We just missed our lengths too much. Today was one of our challenging bowling displays,” he admitted, adding that SRH only found some rhythm towards the end.200 no longer enough at ChinnaswamyVettori also acknowledged that 200 is no longer a safe total on batting-friendly surfaces. “Maybe a couple of years ago you’d think 200 is safe, but we understand where the game’s gone and how destructive that RCB batting line-up is,” he said.While the bowling came under scrutiny, Vettori backed his batting unit, highlighting contributions from players like Aniket Verma and the depth in the top order.With young bowlers like David Payne and Harsh Dubey still finding their feet, SRH will look to regroup quickly.