(Cricket news) Captain Pat Cummins of Sunrisers Hyderabad was happy to emerge victorious from a nail-biting match against Rajasthan Royals, saying he “didn’t really think” his team had the game under control until the very last ball was played.

“Amazing game. That last ball I kind of forgot if we take a wicket, we could win. I was just thinking Super Over,” Cummins said.

With 202 to chase, the Royals lost Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in the opening over. However, a 134-run partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag set the tone for the chase in the third wicket. After 15 overs, the Royals needed 45 to win off 30 balls with seven wickets in hand and Parag set at the crease. By then, they were almost there. 

But Cummins came back to take out Parag, T Natarajan dismissed Shimron Hetmyer, and then Cummins bowled a nerveless 19th over where he went for just seven runs leaving Bhuvneshwar Kumar 12 to defend off the last. Rovman Powell brought down the equation to two off one, but Bhuvneshwar kept his cool as he speared in a low full toss to ping the batter right in front and send the Hyderabad crowd into a frenzy.

“It is T20 cricket, we get used to batters getting them over the line but when you get to that last over, you do feel like anything can happen,” Cummins said. “And yeah Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar] just nailed six yorkers pretty much.”

Bhuvneshwar, who took home the Player of the Match award for his figures of 3 for 41, said his mind was blank while bowling the last over, emphasising that his focus was on the process rather than the result.

“I told everyone process is a very important thing. I was virtually thoughtless; I was not thinking about the result. I was just trying to do what I can do,” he said after the game. “I knew if I could bowl just two good balls, and if it went to the last ball, I knew anything could happen. It was a full toss, I know, and he missed it.”

As a punishment for bowling their overs past the deadline, SRH was also made to place an extra fielder inside the circle. But Bhuvneshwar was not perturbed by that. “I was disengaged from the outcome and wasn’t considering the one additional fielder up or any other limitations. I had not been considering the fielder’s location. I was doing nothing but the process; I was so focused on it,” he remarked.

Bhuvneshwar, who has lost five of his ten games this season, isn’t having the best of seasons. However, on a day when the ball swung significantly under the lights, the legendary Bhuvneshwar excelled. He removed Buttler with an outswinger that was edged to slip in the opening over of the chase, and then he wrecked Samson’s stumps with a peach of an inswinger.

“It was the first match the ball swung so much,” he said. “I can’t really pinpoint where the ball swung last, but the way it swing I really enjoyed it. When it swings, you are always on top of the game, you try to take wickets and luckily, I got wickets.”

That SRH reached 201 was down to Nitish Kumar Reddy’s stylish 76 off 42, during which he strung together vital partnerships with Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. Cummins was all praise for how Reddy went about it. “He is fantastic,” Cummins said.

“He sums up the conditions really well, took the first ten balls to get himself in and then hit the ball basically wherever he wanted. He is amazing, great in the field, and gives a couple of handy overs [with the ball] as well.”

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