NEWS
Follow UsPat Cummins was heavily impressed with Nitish Kumar Reddy after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s two-run win over Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on April 9 (Tuesday). The 20-year-old all-rounder was literally everywhere, doing everything.
Nitish first slammed 64 off 37 deliveries to help SRH recover from 100/5 in 13.1 overs to 182/9 by the end of 20 overs. He wasn’t done yet. The right-arm seamer also got the wicket of Jitesh Sharma in the second innings and took a sharp catch to dismiss Prabhsimran Singh.
"He was awesome. Straight to the top of the order (in this game), was fantastic in the field, bowled three overs too. To get us to 180 off his bat, it was amazing,” said Cummins, who himself conceded only 22 runs in his four overs and took the wicket of Jonny Bairstow.
Also read - Who is Nitish Kumar Reddy - the all-rounder who idolises Virat Kohli?
Nitish had something over 100 runs at a strike rate of 101.92 in T20s before this innings. The right-hander took his time and was on 14 off 18 at one stage. He then hit Harpreet Brar for a four and a six and never looked back thereafter. In his next 19 balls, he smashed 50 runs, studded with four fours and five maximums.
Talking about targeting Brar and playing ahead of someone like Mayank Agarwal, Nitish said: “For me, it is a big contribution for my team and myself. I have been talking to myself that I have to believe in myself and that I have to be there (for the team).
“The seamers were bowling well, so I did not want to take them on. When the spinners came on, I wanted to attack them and that is what I did."
The Men in Orange have been one of the most attacking sides with the bat this season. Cummins said they don’t want to settle with scores of 150-160 and are always looking to go above par. "It was a great game of cricket. They bowled really well at the start, we did well to get to 182 and then defended it. The beauty of the impact player is that you feel you have really deep batting. We try to be positive, to take the game on.
"If you get 150-160, you are going to lose nine out of ten games anyway. We knew the new ball was going to be a key time. We were pretty happy with our score. We saw what happened with the new ball for them, so thought if me and Bhuvi could start off with a wicket, it would be good. We have plenty of left-armers, right-armers, so just tried to give the bowlers the best chance of success."
Also read - 5 pivotal moments from the nail-biter between PBKS and SRH
In the second innings, Bhuvneshwar and Cummins got the new ball to move and reduced PBKS to 20/3 before the end of five overs. Shikhar Dhawan, Bairstow and Prabhsimran could only score 18 runs between them. It was the top-order failure and a couple of chances going down in the field that cost them the game.
Harshal Patel dropped a catch on the last ball of the first innings and it went for a six over long-on. Despite being reduced to 114/6 and needing 67 runs from the last four overs, Shashank Singh (25-ball 46*) and Ashutosh Sharma (15-ball 33*) got Punjab relatively close. In fact, Punjab needed 29 runs from the final over and managed to hit Jaydev Unadkat for 26 runs. That’s right, a couple of runs here and there and they would have emerged victorious.
"Shashank and Ashutosh played great knocks. I feel that we kept them to a good total. Unfortunately, we could not cash in on the first six overs and that is where we lost the game. That pinched us hard. The wicket was not offering that much bounce so every individual has to come up with better plans,” said Dhawan.
"We could have stopped 10-15 runs more and that made a difference as well. As a batting unit, we did not perform. It is important for the top order to perform. Shashank and Ashutosh's performance gives us confidence and hope for the next game. We have to do better in certain areas and improve."
