Sanjay Bangar: Shami's Absence Opened Doors for Cummins' Stellar Performance
Sanjay Bangar heaped praise on Pat Cummins, saying Shami's absence paved the way for Cummins to bowl with the new ball. Cummins demolished Delhi's batting order by putting a ball on a hard length. After SRH's poor performance this season, Bangar advised to rethink their strategy.
On Monday, the 55th match of IPL 2025 between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals was canceled due to rain. With this match, SRH have been knocked out of this season, after which former Indian cricketer Sanjay Bangar said that captain Pat Cummins consistently bowled hard lengths, which led to the collapse of Delhi's batting lineup. Last IPL season SRH redefined T20 hitting with Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. However, this year their aggressive approach backfired and Hyderabad are out of the season with just 3 wins in 11 matches. Both the team's batting and bowling units have disappointed a lot this year.
Speaking on 'Match Centre Live' on Jio Hotstar, Sanjay Bangar said about Cummins, "It was good for Pat Cummins that Mohammed Shami was opted out, which paved the way for Cummins to bowl with the new ball. Initially, they would probably have expected the most damage from Shami, who would have held them a little behind. But today they had their chance. He hit hard lengths consistently, not trying to swing the ball at all, and picked up three crucial wickets early in the innings.
This IPL season has been very poor for Shami. He has taken just six wickets in 9 matches at an economy of 11.23. Cummins, on the other hand, has taken 13 wickets at an average of 27.92 and an economy rate of 9.15, with 3/19 being his best performance. Talking about this season of Sunrisers, Bangar said that he will rethink his strategy going forward because it is not always their high-risk strategy that works.
Talking about the match between Delhi and Hyderabad, after losing five wickets for 29 runs, Tristan Stubbs scored 41 runs in 36 balls for Delhi, while Ashutosh Sharma scored 41 runs in 26 balls. With these crucial innings, Delhi's score reached 133/7. The match was abandoned due to rain and SRH did not get a chance to bat. Delhi is fifth in the points table with six wins in 11 matches. Hyderabad is in eighth place with three wins and seven losses.