Synopsis: Cummins mutes CSK-heavy crowd before power-play blitz from Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head seals the deal for SRH
Four months ago, Pat Cummins’s troops silenced the partisan Motera crowd by beating India and lifting the World Cup. “Nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent,” he had then said. On a tense night here, he silenced the sea of yellow that had filled the stands of the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, clearly outnumbering the home supporters.
Cummins was flawless—his bowling changes, field placements and tactics. Prowling mid-on, he could be seen constantly chattering with the bowlers, almost between every ball. None as illustrative as how he stopped the partnership between Shivam Dube and Ajinkya Rahane. Dube nonchalantly punished the spinners, especially Mayank Markande. He hit monstrous sixes. Rahane would play some crisp shots as soon as there was pace on the ball.
However, Cummins would not panic. He took the spinners out of the attack and resorted to his tried and tested method. That is to suffocate the batsmen by bowling cutters into the surfaces. Jayadev Unadkat played the lead role again. Ahead of the game, the left-arm seamer was intensely practising slower balls outside the off-stump, which is exactly what he executed with aplomb to choke CSK batsmen. Cummins deceived Dube with a slower-ball bouncer to end the 65-run stand. Soon Unadkat would expel Rahane with an off-cutter. He would then strangle them, in the company of Cummins and T Natarajan, as CSK mustered only 49 runs in the last seven overs.
CSK’s batsmen lost their plot. None of them could find means to get runs on the surface. It finally took Ravindra Jadeja’s onslaught on Cummins to bolster the total. In the presentation, Cummins detailed the approach: “Different soil, it slowed up as the game went on.We have got plenty of fast bowlers. Shivam was hitting the spinners. So we took a chance with the fast bowlers bowling cutters.” It worked out splendidly.
Powerplay dazzle
Unlike SRH who bowled back of the length right from the word go, CSK seamers pitched the ball up, which both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma accepted with glee and deposited those to all parts of the ground. Compared to CSK who made 48 in the Powerplay, SRH ransacked 78 runs, almost killing the game then and there. It was vital, because run-making would be difficult once the ball lost its hardness, and CSK had an army of spinners who could pile misery on them.
Abhishek was brutal against the new ball. The left-hander, who blew hot and cold last season, seems to be liberated this year. With his clean striking ability and clear mind, he climbed onto Mukesh Choudhary, who was making his first appearance of the season. The left-arm pacer gave away 27 runs in the second over, which essentially broke the back of the chase.
Even Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is the master of swinging the new ball in the first innings refrained from pitching the ball up and picked up his first wicket of this season by bowing a back-of-length delivery to Rachin Ravindra. But CSK seamers Deepak Chahar and Mukesh were reluctant to adapt to the conditions and pull their lengths back. They paid a hefty price. Head and Abhishek would latch on with calculated and risk-free hitting. They never tried anything over-ambitious and mostly looked to hit the ball straight down the ground.
Sharma especially looked the part. He was fearless yet assured, and his 12-ball 37 provided SRH a blinding impetus. A pleased Cummins would compliment him. “I would not want to be bowling to him.” During the presentation—he was adjudged the man of the match—he thanked his father and cricketer Yuvraj Singh and Brian Lara, his idols. It was not difficult to find where his inspiration came from, and his cameo would have made his idols proud.
It helped SRH that CSK were without two of their finest seamers, Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana. They missed the change of pace adeptness of Rahman as well as the pace and verve of Pathirana.
Markram, the stabiliser
After enjoying a decent 2022, Aiden Markram’s form tapered off last season, scoring 248 runs at an average of 22.55. The captaincy and lack of team performance seemed to weigh heavily on him. However, since handing out captaincy to Cummins, he seems to have regained his touch. Against Mumbai Indians, he chipped in with a crucial unbeaten 42 playing as second fiddle to Heinrich Klassen. He did the same on Friday, composing a knock that his team required in the circumstances.
After the openers gave a blistering start, he came in and consolidated the innings, blocking any opening for CSK. Given that the older ball was tougher to hit for boundaries, he calmly picked singles and twos, ticking and nudging the ball into gaps. But when presented with an opportunity, he would funnel the ball to the fence. He, in a sense, was the true architect of the win. As much as the runs, 50 off 36 balls, the ease with which he handled the spinners would have given him more joy. The stars, thus, are aligning for SRH.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 165 for 5 (Dube 45, Rahane 35, Bhuvneshwar 1-28, Cummins 1-29) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 166 for 4 (Markram 50, Abhishek 37, Head 31, Moeen 2-23) by six wickets.
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