Australian captain Pat Cummins bowls searing yorker in comeback from back injury for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Vaibav Suryavanshi hits 36-ball century
Pat Cummins went head-to-head with young batting phenom Vaibav Suryavanshi and survived to tell the tale as he guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to victory after a back injury severely shortened his Ashes summer.
In the Indian Premier League tournament, which has so far been a graveyard for bowlers, Cummins watched his first ball bowl to 15-year-old Suryavanshi fade away at mid-wicket for six – 11 from his first delivery indicating a long night was to follow.
But Cummins (1-27) was then locked in, conceding just seven runs from his last two overs, while also tiring out Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag with the kind of delivery that will embolden Australia’s selectors after their skipper’s long layoff.
Cummins was certainly impressed by Suryavanshi, who hit a century off just 36 balls after making just 15 off 50 balls.
“I think he’s my new favorite player,” Cummins said afterwards. “He hits the ball very hard, it’s great to watch, he’s great fun. As a bowler you’ve got to be right on the money because if you’re not, you’ve gone a long way. He’s impressive, he’s had a great start to his career and I love his style of play, he’s dominating the game.”
Those close to Cummins believe the 10 months he has spent rehabbing his back problem – broken by just six wickets in the Adelaide Ashes Test – will help prolong his international career ahead of a tough schedule in which Australia will play up to 21 Tests in 12 months from August.
“I’m really happy. I’m never sure how the first game will turn out,” he said. “I understand this better than I did 10 years ago.
“IPL is fun, you always have to change pitches, use bowlers, batsmen always make you think. So I liked it, it felt quite natural.”
As for his return to bowling in a tournament where 200-plus scores have comfortably become the norm, Cummins quipped that bowlers need to work on their swing. The two matches played on Saturday night saw a total of 984 runs scored, underlining how the combination of flat pitches and gutsy batting has transformed this IPL into cricket’s equivalent of the Home Run Derby.
“I guess you’re just working on your swing,” Cummins joked. “It’s a good challenge, you may have a few bad overs but if you come back and bowl a really good death over it can be match-winning. “I actually think in some ways it takes the pressure off us bowlers, we know our batting line-up can chase whatever happens.
“Wickets might be flat but it’s only 20 overs, this isn’t a Test match where they’re going to bat for five days so I don’t see any harm in that, four overs is the maximum. That’s it. We’ve built our team to try to be big in our batting and it’s up to us as bowlers to try to minimize runs. “The scores look a little different to what they did a few years ago but the concept is still the same.
“You feel like all four overs are very important and a wicket, a really good over, can actually be as important as a good spell in a lower-scoring game.”
Chasing 229 to win, Cummins’ Test vice-captain Travis Head departed early, well beaten in a duel with England paceman Jofra Archer and left behind before Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan led the SRH chase to a win that lifted them to third place in the IPL table.
Punjab Kings, coached by Ricky Ponting, had earlier maintained their lead at the top of the league by chasing a big score against Delhi Capitals.
KL Rahul smashed 152 off 67 balls for Delhi and took heavy tolls, particularly on Cricket Australia contracted swing bowler Xavier Bartlett, who was bowled for 69 runs from four overs.
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of many books on cricket.Connect with: X.
