The kind of players Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have in their ranks, they should be making the finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL), said skipper Pat Cummins after their last league match of the tournament on Sunday (May 25).
SRH hammered Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 110 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi to end their otherwise disappointing campaign on a high.
The finalists of IPL 2024 finished the league table at the sixth spot, with 6 wins and 7 defeats from 14 outings. In case Lucknow Super Giants win their final match of the season, SRH will dropped down to seventh position.
Commenting on the team's fortunes this season, Cummins said that they could not have played worse than they did in the middle phases of the tournament and that they would carry the learnings into the 2026 edition.
"Amazing finish. The last few games of the season, lots of things clicked and it was scary to watch that kind of batting. With the calibre of the players we have, we can't play any worse than what we did earlier. With the players we have, we should be making the finals; this year we didn't," Cummins said at the post-match presentation.
The SRH captain lamented the fact that they did not apply themselves enough on tricky pitches this season, which did not resemble the flat tracks that were served in 2024.
"We get wickets like here (New Delhi), we've got to max out and get 250-260, and other ones where we need to graft and get to 170, which we didn't. Quite a few people got opportunities, we looked at each one of them when selecting a team, but couldn't fit them in. Really happy with the squad we have got, few players went with injuries back home, we used 20 players," Cummins remarked.
In their final group match, SRH racked up a mammoth 278/3 on the board, courtesy of Heinrich Klaasen’s brutal century (105* off 39) and Travis Head’s whirlwind 76 off 40 balls. Abhishek Sharma (32 off 16) and Ishan Kishan (29 off 20) and Aniket Verma (12* off 6) also chipped in with handy contributions.
In reply, KKR’s innings folded for 168 in 18.4 overs. It was a listless batting display as no one managed to cross the 50-run mark. Manish Pandey was the top scorer with 37 off 23 balls.
