Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Pat Cummins on Friday (May 24) expressed his delight as the team made a remarkable turnaround to secure a spot in the IPL 2024 final.
In 2023, SRH had finished at the bottom of the points table, but with Cummins roped in for a whopping Rs 20.50 crore, he changed the fortunes of the franchise.
SRH finished the league stage at the second position this season. While the Cummins-led side lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Qualifier 1, they triumphed over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Qualifier 2 to enter into the final.
"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.
"It is for the whole franchise, probably 60 or 70 of them who put their heart and soul into this. It is really gratifying and hopefully one more left."
Invited to bat first, SRH posted a total of 175/9 on the board, thanks to Heinrich Klaasen's brisk 50 off 34 deliveries, along with valuable knocks from Travis Head (34) and Rahul Tripathi (37).
In reply, the Royals were cruising in the powerplay but the duo of Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma spun a web around their batting line-up. While Shahbaz claimed three wickets by conceding 23 runs, Abhishek chipped in with two wickets for 24 runs as SRH restricted RR to 139/7 in 20 overs.
Additionally, Cummins (1/30) and T Natarajan (1/13) picked up a wicket each to bolster SRH's bowling performance.
"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 stated.
Commenting on Abhishek's bowling, the SRH captain said: "That was a surprise, tried to stick one out of him with a couple of right-handers and he bowled beautifully and those two 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," he concluded.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will now face Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2024 final at Chepauk on Sunday (May 26).
(With PTI Inputs)
