Aussies at the IPL – Mitchell Starc takes four, Marcus Stoinis stands up, cool-headed Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins continued to put on a masterclass with the ball and with his captaincy in the IPL as he steered Sunrisers Hyderabad to a thrilling final ball victory over Rajasthan Royals. He could have made things a lot easier for himself had he held a straightforward catch that Yashasvi Jaiswal offered in the powerplay at mid-off. Jaiswal went on to make 67 off 40 as RR were on track to chase SRH’s target of 202. Riyan Parag was also given a life on his way to 77 off 49. But Cummins and T Natarajan pulled the game back by breaking the partnership and taking four key wickets between them. The pair were the only SRH bowlers to concede less than 10 an over. Both went at under 9 per over and Cummins bowled 12 dots including four in the penultimate over of the match when RR only needed 20 off 12. That gave Bhuvneshwar Kumar 12 runs to play with in the last over and he was able to deliver with a wicket off the final ball to clinch the game by one run. Natarajan said Cummins had been incredibly influential on him as skipper and was a key reason why he has been one of the leading wicket-takers in the IPL this season. Earlier in the same game, Travis Head continued his great season with a half-century, although it was his slowest of the tournament at a strike-rate of 131.81.