Sunrisers Hyderabad have looked off the pace throughout the IPL 2025 season, and even an entire week off spent recuperating and team-bonding in the Maldives didn’t help as the team fell to a 38-run loss against high-flying Gujarat Titans.

While Hyderabad’s team had a mini-retreat in the middle of the IPL season with the hope of finding some newfound energy, it wasn’t on display at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad as the bowling was put to the sword, conceding 224-6 in the first innings.

On top of a pretty subpar bowling performance, SRH were also sloppy in the field, dropping a host of chances and leaking runs. Particularly in the powerplay, SRH were loose and allowed extra runs and bonus boundaries. This element of SRH’s game received plenty of criticism from the commentary panel on JioHotstar.

“It looks like SRH are here physically in Ahmedabad, but mentally they are still in Maldives,” joked Deep Dasgupta after an early error made by an SRH fielder. “We were talking about ordinary bowling, but the fielding has been quite ordinary too.”

Harbhajan Singh also joined in on the pile-on over the SRH fielders and their recent break, saying after a particular misfield: “This ball should have been stopped. The fielder had dived, but not as good as he would have done in Maldives. They must have jumped and dived around a lot in swimming pools there, but cannot see that on the ground here.”

SRH fall to 7 losses in the season

GT would score 82-0 in the powerplay, neither of their star openers really having to take any risk as they were able to punish bad balls and play around with the field. There were also a handful of significant dropped catches, including one early in the innings of Jos Buttler, which SRH captain Pat Cummins missed. Buttler went on to notch up another half-century.

Cummins admitted that his team were far too loose with the ball and not up to scratch in the field. This made a difference in the second innings, where GT’s ground fielding prevented Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma from exploding in the powerplay. Rashid Khan also took a candidate for the catch of the season, running 32 metres across the field to dismiss Travis Head with a remarkable grab.

“Our powerplay with the ball wasn't too great, and we let them get 20-30 runs extra. Let down a few more catches and were the guilty party,” admitted skipper Cummins, whose team is now on its last legs in terms of potential qualification.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com