Hyderabad Sunrisers’ victorious skipper Pat Cummins beamed that it had been “good to see the Aussies doing well” as he won the man-of-the-match award and Cooper Connolly joined the elite gang of IPL centurions in a losing cause.
But the Aussie who did best to summon a smile on Wednesday was Punjab Kings coach Ricky Ponting, who watched unimpressed as his side spilled a host of chances, helping Sunrisers to leapfrog them to the top of the table with a 33-run victory in Hyderabad.
Cummins had one of his Midas days when everything seems to turn to gold, taking two key wickets (2-34), grabbing two challenging catches and making a series of canny captaincy decisions.
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The only thing the Australian captain didn’t win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium was the toss, but put in to bat, he watched in glee as Travis Head thumped 38 off 19, Abhishek Sharma 35 off 13 and four glorious chances (three catches and one stumping) got bungled as his side amassed a formidable 4-235.
Connolly himself put down Ishan Kishan, spilling a simple one on the boundary edge off Lockie Ferguson when he’d scored just nine, while Heinrich Klaasen got dropped too in the deep for the same score by Shashank Singh off the luckless spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
These proved super expensive, as Kishan went on to hammer 55 off 32 and Klaasen 69 off 43.
Ponting happened to be doing an interview on TV during Sunrisers’ knock, as he sighed: “It’s been a bit of a virus for us – we’ve put a lot of catches down this season. We can’t afford to go dropping catches like that, I’m not going to be making excuses.”
Just as he was speaking, Ishan got dropped again by Lockie Ferguson, leaving the Aussie great smiling ruefully: “I think I should go. This isn’t going very well…”
Cummins showed Punjab how it should be done. After laying a nice trap and bouncing out Priyansh Arya in his opening over, he then held on to two awkward steepling catches under the lights as the Kings slumped to 3-23.
Hyderabad’s win was almost done and dusted once Marcus Stoinis fell for a brisk 28 off 14 and Cummins (2-34) returned to get rid of Suryansh Shedge just as a fightback was being threatened.
But it turned into a lone show of resistance as Connolly hit eight sixes and seven fours to become Australia’s 12th IPL centurion as wickets tumbled around him.
He reached his maiden hundred off 57 balls, another landmark in his exceptional debut season, in the final over, finishing on 107no in the Kings’ 7-202.
“Cooper’s phenomenal,” said Kings’ captain Shreyas Iyer.
“His mindset is top-notch, the character he brings to the field, all players can learn from him. I feel he’s got a knack of scoring big runs in pressure situations.”
At the end of the match, Cummins was all class, and the cricket world was in awe.
“This is why Pat Cummins stands among the greatest leaders in cricket. 🫡,” said cricket content creator AK 45.
“As soon as the match was over, Cummins first went to Conolly, praised him, and hugged him for his brave fighting knock alone. 🥹♥️. My respect for Cummins has grown even more.👏👏”
“Pat Cummins leading like a boss,” fans said.
Indian cricket great turned commentator Ravi Ashwin said :“Sunrisers Hyderabad under Pat Cummins is a completely different team. They’re the dark horse, in fact, the only side I feel can stop Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
“I said this even before the season started. They struggled early on with injuries and had to tweak their bowling. But now that they’ve fixed it they look like a totally different unit. For me, Sunrisers Hyderabad are the team to watch in the final phase of the season.”
AUSSIES WITH IPL CENTURIES
Mike Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist (2), Shaun Marsh, David Warner (4), Shane Watson (4), Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Marsh, Cooper Connolly.
