Cummins, meanwhile, was “just thinking Super Over” in nail-biting finish against Royals
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins “didn’t really think” his team had the game in the bag till the very last ball was bowled, and was glad to come out on the right side of a thriller against Rajasthan Royals.
“Amazing game. That last ball I kind of forgot if we take a wicket, we could win. I was just thinking Super Over,” Cummins said.
Chasing 202, Royals lost Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in the first over but Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag set up the chase with a 134-run stand for the third wicket. Royals already had the finishing line in sight at the end of 15 overs, when they needed 45 to win off 30 balls with seven wickets in hand and a set Parag at the crease. But Cummins came back to take out Parag, T Natarajan dismissed Shimron Hetmyer, and then Cummins bowled a nerveless 19th over where he went for just seven runs leaving Bhuvneshwar Kumar 12 to defend off the last. Rovman Powell brought down the equation to two off one, but Bhuvneshwar kept his cool as he speared in a low full toss to ping the batter right in front and send the Hyderabad crowd into a frenzy.
“It is T20 cricket, we get used to batters getting them over the line but when you get to that last over, you do feel like anything can happen,” Cummins said. “And yeah Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar] just nailed six yorkers pretty much.”
Bhuvneshwar, who took home the Player of the Match award for his figures of 3 for 41, said his mind was blank while bowling the last over, emphasising that his focus was on the process rather than the result.
“I told everyone process is a very important thing. I was virtually thoughtless; I was not thinking about the result. I was just trying to do what I can do,” he said after the game. “I knew if I could bowl just two good balls, and if it went to the last ball, I knew anything could happen. It was a full toss, I know, and he missed it.”
SRH were also forced to have an extra fielder inside the circle as a penalty for not bowling their overs in time. But that did not bother Bhuvneshwar. “I was not thinking about the one extra fielder up, or whatever the restriction was, I was detached from the result. I wasn’t thinking about where the fielder is. I was so focused on the process; that was the only thing I was doing,” he said.
It’s not been the best of seasons for Bhuvneshwar, who has gone wicketless in five of ten games so far. But on a day when the ball swung considerably under lights, the Bhuvneshwar of old came into his own. In the first over of the chase, he first removed Buttler with an outswinger that was edged to slip and then made a mess of Samson’s stumps with a peach of an inswinger.
“It was the first match the ball swung so much,” he said. “I can’t really pinpoint where the ball swung last, but the way it swing I really enjoyed it. When it swings, you are always on top of the game, you try to take wickets and luckily, I got wickets.”
That SRH reached 201 was down to Nitish Kumar Reddy‘s stylish 76 off 42, during which he strung together vital partnerships with Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. Cummins was all praise for how Reddy went about it. “He is fantastic,” Cummins said.
“He sums up the conditions really well, took the first ten balls to get himself in and then hit the ball basically wherever he wanted. He is amazing, great in the field, and gives a couple of handy overs [with the ball] as well.”
