Cummins and Bhuvneshwar Secure Thrilling 1 Run Victory for Sunrisers Hyderabad
Pat Cummins delivered a decisive 19th over, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar held his nerve in the final over, defending 12 runs, as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clinched a thrilling one-run win against Rajasthan Royals (RR).
The highest asking rate the Rajasthan Royals allowed to reach in a 202 chase was 10.88, which came at the conclusion of the first over, and that was until the 19th over of the chase. Still, Sunrisers Hyderabad prevailed by a single run. After Pat Cummins bowled a brilliant 19th over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar capably defended 12 in the last over, even if the over-rate penalty gave them one less boundary hitter.
Rajasthan Royals 200 for 7 (Parag 77, Jaiswal 67) were defeated by Sunrisers Hyderabad 201 for 3 (Nitish Kumar Reddy 76*, Head 58, Avesh 2-39) by a single run.
Rovman Powell missed a calf-high full toss to be out leg before wicket, but RR was still the favorite going into the final ball and needed two to win. With the wickets of Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in the opening over, Bhuvneshwar set up their defence brilliantly. However, with their fifties, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag made the chase appear simple. They required 67 off 39 when Jaiswal went down, then 43 off 25 when Parag exited. Powell and Shimron Hetmyer appeared to be coasting along when two hits went right to the field, and Cummins came crashing down.
Despite opting to bat first, SRH took the picturesque way to their fifth IPL century or higher. By all accounts, their regular chasing record, not the conditions, guided the choice. They were forced to begin on a slow track, but as the evening progressed, things got better. Actually, in their final 12 overs, they scored 153 runs themselves. SRH, who are now ranked in the top four on the points table, appeared to have lost the match during the first eight overs of the eighteen overs of the RR chase.
For RR, having two left-handers open was a perfect matchup. They could now also bowl R Ashwin, although Trent Boult is still an excellent new-ball bowler. Travis Head was dropped by Parag at backward point, depriving Boult of a wicket on the opening delivery, although the pair bowled four overs for just twenty-five runs between them.
Boult took the opposite approach, putting two players deep on the leg side and denying the SRH openers any space, after CSK had stopped them with a sweeper on the off side during the powerplay. Being able to consistently beat the bat without taking a wicket was especially unfortunate for Ashwin.
With the first ball that each of Abhishek Sharma and Anmolpreet Singh was bowled, Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma received the rewards. As a result, the SRH powerplay this year was the slowest at 37 runs.
It appeared as though SRH decided the pitch had improved after the first time-out. There was a noticeable shift in intent. It was directed against Yuzvendra Chahal, who was dragged and driven for sixes by Head. In 37 balls, he moved from 27 off 27 to his fifty. Nitish Kumar Reddy did the same, making a 30-ball fifty out of his 5-off-10. Despite Chahal’s second-worst stats in all of T20 cricket, he was merciless against him, giving him the second-worst analysis of any spinner in the IPL (4-0-62-0).
After hitting his fifty, Head again found himself in a bit of a rut, which culminated with him playing on as he attempted to ramp a wide yorker. Not until the third umpire granted him another reprieve, despite the fact that his bat was obviously in the air when the wicket was broken.
Still, it was Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen who really caused RR’s problems. Reddy hit two sixes in his last over, ruining Ashwin’s tidy stats. In the 17th over, Klaasen then got into a collision with Chahal. The RR bowlers were spot on in their strategy and execution, and Klaasen’s outstanding hitting and ingenuity were needed to propel SRH over 200 runs.
In the same over, Bhuvneshwar moved the fresh ball beyond Samson’s inside edge and drew the outside edge from Buttler’s first ball. In T20 cricket, these were his 45th and 46th wickets in the opening over. With 27 wickets, he is currently tied for leading place with Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 47, just one behind him.
Also Read: Sunrisers Hyderabad Win Maiden IPL Title with Tight Victory Over RCB In 2016
In the second over, Bhuvneshwar attempted to knock a six and two fours, but his swing was met by Parag’s wide swinging bat. This was casual, contemptuous striking. Jaiswal was equally strong but more respectful. At mid-off, his shot at the beginning of the fourth over found its way straight into Cummins’s midriff, but the captain of the SRH dropped it. Subsequently, Cummins launched himself to score a pair of fours and an incredible six over the long leg. Abhishek Sharma dismissed Parag at extra cover in the subsequent over. The fact that the asking rate stayed around 10 at its highest point indicates how consistently they hit.
Similar to Head, Jaiswal attempted to ramp it up by playing on a low full toss. Two balls later, Parag smacked a six to regain the momentum. In hindsight, little things that happened in the 16th over seem monumental.Â
Parag smashed a full toss to short fine leg straight from Cummins. Then he holed out to long-on after getting too near to a half-volley. In a rare over without a boundary, SRH claimed a wicket.
However, Powell calmed RR’s fears by hitting 15 off of Marco Jansen’s 17th bowl. Hetmyer had a big six to begin the eighteenth. After he mishit a full toss after two dot balls, the game refused to end. Following a leg-side half-volley from Dhruv Jurel that went straight down the neck of deep square leg, Cummins bowled three consecutive dots at Powell, who smacked the final ball for six to tip the scales once more.
Powell took advantage of the fielding penalty after Ashwin gave him the strike to take a boundary through the empty fine-leg area. Powell was able to capture three couples because of poor throws from the outfield. It would end with one more. Powell might have been anticipating a yorker because Bhuvneshwar had been dominating them. He was caught off guard by the entire toss, which handed RR their first IPL loss while chasing.
Also Read: Rajasthan Royals Triumph In Thrilling 2008 IPL Final Against CSK
Kumar On His Final Over
In contrast, Cummins was “just thinking Super Over” during the thrilling Royals game.
Pat Cummins, the skipper of Sunrisers Hyderabad, expressed his gratitude for winning a thrilling match against the Rajasthan Royals, saying he “didn’t really think” his team had the game won until the very last ball was played.
“What a fantastic game. I kind of forgot that we may win if we took a wicket on the last ball. Cummins remarked, “I was just thinking Super Over.”
With 202 to chase, the Royals lost Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in the opening over. However, a 134-run partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag set the tone for the chase in the third wicket. After 15 overs, the Royals needed 45 to win off 30 balls with seven wickets in hand and Parag set at the crease. By then, they were almost there.
As T Natarajan removed Shimron Hetmyer and Cummins returned to remove Parag, Cummins bowled a fearless 19th over for only seven runs, leaving Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 12 to defend off the last over. Although Rovman Powell reduced the score to two off one, Bhuvneshwar remained composed and speared in a low full toss that pinged the batter squarely in front of him, energizing the Hyderabad crowd.
“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 stated. “And yeah Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar] just nailed six yorkers pretty much.”
With his statistics of 3 for 41, Bhuvneshwar won Player of the Match. He emphasized that he was more concerned with the process than the outcome, saying that during the final over, his mind was blank.
“I advised everyone that the procedure is crucial. I was essentially careless; I wasn’t considering the outcome. “I simply tried to do my best,” he remarked following the match. “I knew anything could happen if I could bowl even two decent balls, and if it came down to the final ball. I realize it was a complete toss, but he missed it.”
As a punishment for bowling their overs past the deadline, SRH was also made to place an extra fielder inside the circle. But Bhuvneshwar was not perturbed by that. “I was disengaged from the outcome and wasn’t considering the one additional fielder up or any other limitations. I had not been considering the fielder’s location. I was doing nothing but the process; I was so focused on it,” he remarked.
Bhuvneshwar, who has lost five of his ten games this season, isn’t having the best of seasons. However, on a day when the ball swung significantly under the lights, the legendary Bhuvneshwar excelled. He removed Buttler with an outswinger that was edged to slip in the opening over of the chase, and then he wrecked Samson’s stumps with a peach of an inswinger.
“It was the first match the ball swung so much,” he stated. “It’s difficult for me to say exactly where the ball swung last, but I really liked the way it did. You are always in control of the game when it swings, and you attempt to take wickets—fortunately, I did.”
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s elegant 76 off 42, during which he formed crucial alliances with Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen, was the reason SRH achieved 201. Cummins has nothing but respect for Reddy’s approach. Cummins said, “He is amazing.”
He took the first ten balls to gain entry and then whacked the ball pretty much anywhere he pleased, which is a great summary of the conditions. In addition to being fantastic in the field, he also provides a few helpful overs [with the ball].”
