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Australia’s ODI and Test captain Pat Cummins led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 final with a comfortable win over Rajasthan Royals (RR). SRH posted 175/9 and managed to defend the total on the back of their spinners’ excellent performances. The dew did not come into play at MA Chidambaram Stadium and SRH bowlers were able to grip the ball well. In the post-match presentation was asked about the dew factor to which he had an interestingly reply.
“I will never pretend to work out the pitch and conditions ever, different every week,” Cummins said.
The fast-bowling all-rounder lauded his teammates, especially the pace attack comprising of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan and Jaydev Unadkat for making his job easier.
“The boys have been fantastic all season. There's a great vibe in the squad as you can see and the final was the goal at the start of the season and we made it. We knew our strength was our batting and we wouldn't underestimate the experience we have in this squad, it's a dream having Bhuvi, Nattu and Unadkat, makes my job easy,” he said.
Cummins credits left-arm spinners
Cummins also revealed who was behind using Shahbaz Ahmed as impact player. He lauded Abhishek Sharma for his bowling as well.
“Dan Vettori, left-arm orthodox and wanted as many left-arm orthodox as possible. [on Abhishek's bowling] That was a surprise, tried to stick one out of him with a couple of right-handers and he bowled beautifully and those two won it with their bowling in the middle overs. 170 was a tough chase and had we got a couple of wickets we knew we had a chance,” he added.
Cummins chasing 17-year-old record
In the final against Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Cummins will be chasing former Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Shane Warne's unique record. Cummins has taken 17 wickets for SRH in IPL 2024. Warne with 19 wickets in the inaugural edition of IPL is the only captain with more wickets in a season.
This will be SRH’s third appearance in an IPL final. The last time they qualified for the final was in IPL 2018 where they lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
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