‘Did not help us’: Pat Cummins slams Hyderabad pitch after SRH’s loss to GT

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins wasn’t happy with the quality of the pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday. Notably, this is the same venue where SRH have enjoyed much success in the recent past with scores in excess of 250, but in their match against Gujarat Titans, the home side were restricted to 152 runs after a 4-fer from Mohammed Siraj.

Cummins, who is used to seeing high scores from his team at the venue, was not happy with the pitch as he commented after the match:”Well, it was not a traditional Hyderabad wicket. It was getting harder to get some fluency in your innings. We wanted to take a few early wickets in the powerplay and stay in the game,”

“The wicket did not spin as much as we thought. There was a little bit of dew which obviously did not help us,” Cummins added.

The SRH skipper also opened up on the question of bringing Simarjeet Singh as an impact substitute instead of spinner Rahul Chahar.

“No, we were in two minds actually whether to go for Chahar or Simarjeet. Actually in the first innings, we saw that the pace bowlers were getting some more help from the surface so we went with Simarjeet.” Cummins said on the impact sub choice.

GT hand SRH 7 wicket defeat at home:

The Hyderabad patch did not allow any SRH batsman to get past the 30-run mark, with the exception of Nitish Kumar Reddy. While local boy Mohammed Siraj wreaked havoc, spinner Sai Kishore also played a quiet but effective role, taking 2 wickets for just 24 runs.

In reply, pacers Cummins and Mohammed Shami took two early wickets for SRH, but the partnership between skipper Shubman Gill and all-rounder Washington Sundar saw the team to a comfortable total. After Sundar’s wicket, skipper Gill and Sherfane Ruherford ensured that GT won the match in the 17th over.