SRH vs RR: "That's T20 cricket" - Pat Cummins in awe of Nitish Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan after IPL 2024 thriller

Updated - 05 May 2024, 08:51 PM

Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins (PC: X)

Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) locked horns with the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 50th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Thursday, May 2, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to do what they do best - bat first. They were surprisingly off to a poor start in the match as the duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma wasn't able to fire with the bat.

Head was dismissed after playing a scratchy knock of 58 runs in 44 balls, but after his dismissal, Nitish Reddy (76) and Heinrich Klaasen (42) joined forced to take RR bowlers to the cleaners. In the end, SRH posted a huge total of 201/3 on the board.

Defending the target, they were off to a great start in the innings as Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in his first over. However, after that, Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal hit the fifties and staged a comeback for RR. In the end, T Natarajan and Pat Cummins bowled exceptionally well to keep SRH in the game and then Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled an absolutely excellent final over to restrict RR to 200/7. SRH won the match by a small margin of 1 run.

Speaking after the match, SRH skipper Pat Cummins said that anything can happen in T20 cricket and added that they played an amazing game. Pat Cummins also showered rich praise on T Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for doing a fantastic job for the team with the ball. Pat Cummins stated:

"I am good, was an amazing game. That's T20 cricket. Anything can happen, Bhuvi executed that last ball. You try to take some wickets in the middle. Natarajan is a good yorker bowler, fortunately we got some wickets. 

Pat Cummins further lauded the youngster Nitish Reddy, who has been contributing exceptionally well to SRH's success in the ongoing season. Pat Cummins elaborated:

"Played some games here, thought 200 could have been chased down. He (Nitish Reddy) sums up the conditions pretty well, he's amazing, great in the field, gives some overs with the ball as well."

What Happened In The IPL 2023 Meetings Between SRH And RR 

In the Indian Premier League 2023, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad faced off each other twice on April 2 and May 7. In the first match between the teams, RR comprehensively thumped SRH by 72 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad. However, in their second meeting, SRH made a good comeback and won a thriller by 4 wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

In the Hyderabad clash between the teams, RR top-order fired and took the team to a great total of 203/5 with Jos Buttler (54), Yashasvi Jaiswal (54) and Sanju Samson (55) hitting half-centuries. Defending the target, Yuzvendra Chahal shined with a 4-wicket haul while Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Jason Holder supported him well as they bundled out SRH for 131/8.

In the Jaipur clash, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted a great total of 214/2 as Jos Buttler (95) and Sanju Samson (66) played stellar innings for the side. During the run-chase, the match went down the wires and despite Yuzvendra Chahal's brilliant 4-wicket haul, Sunrisers Hyderabad completed the run-chase as Abdul Samad hit Sandeep Sharma for the last-ball six to seal the deal.

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