New Delhi, March 31 : Veteran India bater Cheteshwar Pujara believes the Sunrisers Hyderabad went too hard and were not smart enough with their batting approach in their seven-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals.

At the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Sunday, SRH were reduced to 37/4 and despite Aniket Verma's brilliant 41-ball 74, SRH could only make 163 in their 18.4 overs, as DC completed the chase with four overs to spare.

"Firstly I was really surprised they chose to bat first. When you're playing an afternoon game, you know that the pitch will be slightly on the slow side, that's when you normally prefer to bowl and that's an ideal time to bowl, not an ideal time to bat. I thought they should have bowled first. But talking about their batting, I think they go too hard and they were not smart enough," said Pujara to ESPNCricinfo.

He also felt SRH should resort to plan B if their ultra-attacking approach doesn't work on certain match days. "What is your success then. If you are just winning two out of 10, then it doesn't make sense. You need to win more number of games.

"You need to show that consistency again and again. Last season we saw that they played brilliantly throughout the league phase but what if one game goes wrong for you in the knockouts, then you're not able you are not able to have a plan," he added.

Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, believes wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen should have batted for a longer period and that the side needs one batter to take time to settle at the crease instead of going hard from the word go.

"Those are experiences that I hope they will be learning, even Pat Cummins who says 'keep going hard', as they go through the season. I look at Klaasen's dismissal, I think even Heinrich should know his power and if he was to stay and bat a little bit deeper, he will score at a huge tempo.

"It's still early in the season, but they (SRH) have got to start understanding that if Aniket gets going, we can spend some time there with him as deep as we bat and just soak it up just a little bit more. It's not to consolidate for five-six overs, but it's just maybe to manage for about three, four, five bowls, maybe even an over, we're not talking consolidation for a long period," he concluded.

/IANS