Goal at the start of the season was to make the final, we’ve done it now: Cummins

Eyebrows were raised when Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), who finished bottom of the table in IPL 2023, decided to splash a whopping 20.5 crore on Pat Cummins at the auction table. Considering T20 was Cummins’ weakest format, and considering he hadn’t set the IPL on fire with his performances in the years gone by, SRH spending 20.5 crore on the Australian Test and ODI captain was being spoken of as a puzzling move.

But six months on, the gamble has ended up paying off in spectacular fashion for the Sunrisers. For only the third time in their history, SRH have reached the final of the IPL. Not many had the franchise being in the final at the start of the season, but they’ve now got to the summit while establishing an identity for themselves.

On the back of his side’s sensational win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Qualifier 2 at Chepauk on May 24 (Friday), Cummins revealed that SRH have ticked off what they wanted to achieve at the start of the season.

“The boys have been fantastic all season. There's a great vibe in the squad as you can see and the final was the goal at the start of the season and we made it,” Cummins said at the post-match presentation.

The SRH revolution in IPL 2024 has come from Cummins himself as much as anyone, with the skipper leading from the front with the ball: this season, he’s taken 17 wickets at an economy of 9.3, while bowling all the tough overs. 

But the skipper lavished praise on the other bowlers, and said that having the likes of Unadtkat, Bhuvneshwar and Natarajan is a boon for any skipper.

“We knew our strength was our batting and we wouldn't underestimate the experience we have in this squad, it's a dream having Bhuvi, Nattu and Unadkat, makes my job easy,” Cummins said.

Punishers with the bat usually, SRH won Qualifier 2 on the back of their bowling. It was their spinners Shahbaz Ahmed (3/23) and Abhishek Sharma (2/24) who choked RR in the middle-overs and bowled SRH to victory.

Cummins said that he himself was taken aback by how well Abhishek bowled.

“That was a surprise, tried to stick one out of him with a couple of right-handers and he bowled beautifully,” Cummins said of Abhishek.

“Those two [Shahbaz and Abhishek] won it with their bowling in the middle overs. 170 was a tough chase and had we got a couple of wickets we knew we had a chance.”

The SRH skipper hoped for one final push from the entire franchise, on Sunday in the final. 2016 was the last time the Sunrisers lifted the IPL title.

“It is for the whole franchise, probably 60 or 70 of them who put their heart and soul into this and hopefully one more left,” Cummins said.

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