SRH vs RR: "Final was the goal" - Pat Cummins proud of Sunrisers Hyderabad as they qualify for IPL 2024 final

Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took on the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Friday, May 24, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

SRH were invited to bat first in the do-or-die game and the batting unit of the team failed once again. From the top-order Rahul Tripathi (37) played the best knock at a great strike rate and Travis Head scored scratchy 34 runs. After that, Heinrich Klaasen blasted a brilliant 50 runs and other players made small contributions as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 175/9 on the board.

Defending the total, SRH bowlers were put under pressure initially but they bounced back like champions and restricted RR to 139/7 to win the match by 36 runs. With the win, they have booked a date with the KKR for the IPL 2024 final.

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Pat Cummins lauded his batters and bowlers for doing a fantastic job throughout the season. Pat Cummins stated:

"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."

Pat Cummins revealed that coach Daniel Vettori decided to bring in Shahbaz Ahmed as the impact player for the game and he showered rich praise on Abhishek Sharma for doing a great job with the ball. Pat Cummins asserted:

"[on whose decision it was to bring Shahbaz as impact player] 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."

Pat Cummins further said that he knew chasing would be tough for RR if they picked a couple of wickets at regular intervals. He elaborated:

"170 was a tough chase and had we got a couple of wickets we knew we had a chance. I will never pretend to work out the pitch and conditions ever, different every week. It is for the whole franchise, probably 60 or 70 of them who put their heart and soul into this and hopefully one more left."

How Sunrisers Hyderabad Reached Qualifier 2

Pat Cummins' Sunrisers Hyderabad finished at the No.2 position in the Indian Premier League 2024 standings and played Qualifier 1 against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 21.

Sunrisers Hyderabad were completely outplayed by the Knight Riders in the game and they faced an 8-wicket defeat with 38 balls remaining in the match, which led to them getting a second chance to qualify for the final and play Qualifier 2.

Batting first, Sunrisers Hyderabad surprisingly failed and were reduced to 4-39 with the explosive openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma back into the hut. To make things worse for them the in-form Nitish Reddy was also dismissed early. Eventually, Team Hyderabad were bundled out for 159 and the score would even smaller if Rahul Tripathi, Heinrich Klaasen, and Pat Cummins hadn't made significant contributions with the bat.

When it came to the second innings, Kolkata Knight Riders openers Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz did what they do best and played an attacking brand of cricket. The openers were somehow dismissed but then Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer joined forces and smashed sensational half-centuries to power KKR to the final of the Indian Premier League 2024.