Ahmedabad, May 12 Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins admitted his side may have missed a trick with the ball after Gujarat Titans exposed the difficult batting conditions far better in an emphatic 82-run win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Defending a modest-looking 168, GT ripped through SRH for just 86, with their pacers relentlessly attacking hard lengths on a surface that offered steep assistance throughout the chase.
Reflecting on the contrast between the two bowling performances, Cummins said SRH perhaps failed to persist enough with the same approach during GT’s innings.
“Yeah, I mean, you always look at it. It looked like a pretty tough wicket once you kind of hit that back of the length, and they didn't really give us much to score. So, perhaps in our bowling innings, you kind of, you learn from that, you think maybe we could have held our lengths just a little bit longer,” Cummins said after the defeat.
SRH had walked off at the innings break believing the target was within reach after restricting GT to 168/5, but the chase unravelled almost immediately. Mohammed Siraj removed Travis Head for a duck in the opening over before Kagiso Rabada tore through the top order to leave Hyderabad in complete disarray.
Cummins credited Gujarat’s attack for executing their plans flawlessly on a demanding surface. “I feel they bowled really well in that second innings. I was pretty happy with it when we walked off at the start, but yeah, pretty tricky wicket. I think they made the most of it, their bowlers, they bowled really well. So, yeah, maybe try and look at ways to get through that spell, but, you know, they deserve a bit of credit,” he said.
The Australian skipper went a step further, describing the performance as elite-level T20 bowling as he said, “But overall, you know, I thought that, that's as good as T20 bowling as you're going to see from them.”
Despite the collapse, Cummins refused to overreact to a rare off-night from SRH’s usually explosive batting line-up.
“Our batting order's been fantastic. So I don't think we need to read it too far into today. I think all four of our top four have over 400 runs. So, the guys are going really well. This happens in T20 cricket,” he stated.
The defeat leaves SRH still fighting for a playoff place, though Cummins pointed out that their strong run leading into this fixture had given the side breathing room in the qualification race.
“I think getting ahead of the count pretty early (is important). I think we won five or six out of the last seven. Gives you a bit of breathing room these last few games. So, yeah, we've still got two games yet to qualify. So again, going back to what got us those wins in the first place and yeah, putting this one behind us pretty quickly,” Cummins mentioned.
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