Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins said that while he thought chasing 244 could be easy against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede surface, he was also confident of the team’s batting line-up as well. However, SRH beat MI by six wickets, where Travis Head (76 off 30 balls), Heinrich Klaasen (65* off 30 balls), Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24 balls) and Salil Arora (30* off 10 balls), chased down the huge total of 243 with eight balls remaining.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Pat Cummins said, “Tough to start with, but knowing our batting line-up and the pitch, few things had to go right but I thought it was chaseable. (On the openers) When the pitch is good, they have so many different shots. Glad I am not bowling to them. (On the youngsters) They are super aggressive. They have a fearless attitude. Now, even 12 an over, you can chase as a batting unit, so you have to reset your expectations as a bowling unit.”
Pat Cummins again said, “(What do you make of all these youngsters coming through?) It’s super impressive. Salil (Arora) hasn’t really got much of a chance this season yet, but really impressed in the preseason. They’ve all just got that fearless attitude. So credit to the coaching staff as well for instilling that in these young guys. I don’t think they realize how good they are.”
“I think I said last game, it’s these high-scoring games, there’s not a lot in it for the bowlers. But you do feel like, even at the end there, if you nail one really good yorker, it can still be the difference in the match. So bowlers – and really good bowlers – you know, like Eshan (Malinga) in our team, he’s a big reason why we’ve been winning these games as well. I think he’s got the purple cap as well. You can still have a huge impact. Everything’s going well at the moment, so keep hanging in there,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Klaasen won the Player of the Match award for his quickfire 65-run knock. He also said that the pitch was good, but MI had a strong bowling attack, so they took calculated risks only. Klaasen also gave credit to the openers, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma for putting pressure on the bowlers, which made his chase easier as well.
“Wicket was good. They had a quality bowling attack, so had to take a chance and see if we could make light work of it. It is always fun, you can feel them (Abhishek and Head) putting the bowlers under pressure. If they are going (at a brisk rate), it makes your job easier,” Klaasen said at the post-match presentations.
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