Pat Cummins once again showcased his captaincy skills to its fullest potential on Friday, as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in their IPL 2024 fixture. Chasing 166, SRH reached 166/4 in 18.1 overs, courtesy of a half-century from Aiden Markram, who smacked 50 off 36 balls. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Abhishek Sharma, who opened the innings with Travis Head, registered 37 off 12 deliveries.
In the first innings, Cummins caught everyone's attention as he decided to send Abhishek for the opening over, instead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. CSK posted 165/5 in 20 overs, as Shivam Dube smacked 45 off 24 balls. The SRH bowlers put in a collective team effort as Bhuvneshwar, T Natarajan, Cummins, Shahbaz Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat took a wicket each.
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Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Tom Moody heaped praise on Cummins and compared his captaincy skills to MS Dhoni's. "The one thing I like about Cummins is he is a bit like MS Dhoni. He is prepared to make a decision that most people don’t think about, but makes you feel like ‘Why didn’t I think about that?’ Like the Abhishek Sharma over. It was quite an odd decision when you look at the other options they could have gone with," he said.
"You have arguably the best new ball bowler in IPL history in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. You have got an off spinner against left-handers. You think Markram would be another one. There was plenty of other ways he could have gone. But he committed to that and it looked like from the get go, he convinced himself that it was the right decision," he further added.
{{/usCountry}}"You have arguably the best new ball bowler in IPL history in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. You have got an off spinner against left-handers. You think Markram would be another one. There was plenty of other ways he could have gone. But he committed to that and it looked like from the get go, he convinced himself that it was the right decision," he further added.
{{/usCountry}}The win saw SRH climb to fifth position in the points table with four points in four matches. Meanwhile, CSK remain in third position with four points and a higher net run rate.
Meanwhile after the match, Cummins said, "First thing is always to get the points. Wouldn't want to be bowling to him (Abhishek) and Trav Head at the top. Crowd was crazy tonight. When MS walked out, it was as loud as I've ever heard."