Our batting style this year was incredible: Pat Cummins

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were the team to beat throughout the season. They were so good with the bat that they broke numerous records, including smashing the 250+ score thrice in the year. However, cometh the hour, their batting failed to live up to the billing. 

Despite Pat Cummins winning the toss and opting to bat first in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Sunrisers’ back was broken pretty early when Mitchell Starc accounted for the in-form Abhishek Sharma, who was bowled for a five-ball two. 2/1 became 6/2 when Vaibhav Arora’s outswinger accounted for the other in-form opener, Travis Head. 

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From thereon, Sunrisers never recovered and required contributions from Aiden Markram (20), Nitish Reddy (13), Heinrich Klaasen (16), and Pat Cummins (24) to take them to 113. It was the lowest-ever score in an IPL final in the competition's history, and SRH saved their worst for last. 

In the post-match presentation, SRH’s skipper Cummins revealed that they were thoroughly ‘outplayed’ by a well-oiled KKR unit. 

“I thought they bowled fantastically. Obviously not enough tonight. We were outplayed. They didn't give us anything. Just like the last game in Ahmedabad. It was a tricky wicket,” Cummins said in the post-match presentation.

While SRH were thoroughly outplayed, what could have been a plausible good total at the venue?

“Didn't feel like a 200-plus wicket. 160 would have given us a chance,” Cummins said. 

Despite finishing second-best behind KKR, SRH have shown considerable improvement from last year, when they finished at the bottom of the table. However, this time, they have considerably upgraded their batting to a level where the others looked weak. 

“The style of our play, particularly with the bat, scoring 250 three times. So it was a great season. I had not worked with many of the guys before but it was great working with them. A really great squad and the staff was amazing,” Cummins said. 

“Had a great time. We play a lot in India but in front of a sea of blue. So it was good to have crowd on our side at times.”

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