Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins was overjoyed after his team secured a thrilling two-run victory over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a closely contested Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match on April 9. The game, played in Mullanpur, was a nail-biting encounter that went down to the wire. Cummins praised young batsman Nitish Reddy for his crucial knock. Reddy played a brilliant innings of 64 runs from just 37 balls, helping Hyderabad recover from a precarious position of 66/4 after 10 overs and post a competitive total of 182/9. Punjab Kings put up a valiant chase with significant contributions from Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma. The duo, who had been instrumental in their team's previous victory, stitched together a crucial 66-run partnership. They almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, needing just 29 runs from the final over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat. However, Hyderabad managed to hold their nerve and secure a narrow win despite dropping three catches in the last over.
"It was a great game of cricket. they bowled really well at the start, we did well to get to 182 and then defended it. The beauty of the impact player is that you feel you have really deep batting. We try to be positive, to take the game on. If you get 150-160, you are going to lose nine out of ten games anyway. We knew the new ball was going to be a key time. We were pretty happy (with our score). The conditions really," Cummins said in the post-match presentation.
"Saw what happened with the new ball for them, so thought if me and Bhuvi could start off with a wicket of wickets (it would be good). We have plenty of left-armers, right-armers, so just trying to give the bowlers the best chance of success. He was awesome, fantastic debut last week. Straight to the top for the order, fantastic in the field, bowled three overs too. To get us to 180 basically off his own bat was unreal," he concluded.
Hyderabad's batting innings was a stuttering affair. They managed to reach a decent total thanks to a few contributions scattered throughout the order. The highlight, however, was youngster Nitish Kumar Reddy's brilliant fifty. Arshdeep Singh emerged as the bowling hero for Punjab, taking an impressive four wickets. He was ably supported by Sam Curran and Harshal Patel, who picked up two wickets each, while Kagiso Rabada chipped in with one.
Punjab's chase started poorly, losing wickets in the crucial Powerplay overs. Despite a valiant fightback towards the end, they fell agonizingly short of the target, suffering a heartbreaking defeat.
SRH will next face Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 15.
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