Cummins and Head facing 'ramifications' in $5 million Aussie cricket drama
Pat Cummins and Travis Head's Sunrisers Hyderabad team have hit rock-bottom in the IPL, slumping to a fourth-consecutive loss to sit dead-last on the ladder. The Aussie cricket stars are being paid $3.7 million and $1.2m respectively in this year's tournament, but haven't been able to lead their team to much glory.
Cummins' side made the final last year, but have their work cut out just to make the playoffs in 2025. The Sunrisers seem to lost their mojo after crashing to a comprehensive seven-wicket loss to Gujarat Titans on Sunday night.
Head only managed eight from five balls while opening the batting as Hyderabad were restricted to 8-152 from their 20 overs. The Aussie batter was superb in the 2024 tournament, but hasn't been able to reach those same lofty heights this year.
Cummins made a late cameo of 22 off nine balls with the bat, and despite respectable bowling figures he couldn't save his team from another defeat. Cummins took 1-26 off 3.4 overs, which was much better compared to previous games in which he's leaked over 10 runs per over. But the Aussie captain conceded the winning runs in just the 17th over, adding more embarrassment to a disastrous start for the Sunrisers.
Speaking after the game, coach Daniel Vettori called for calm. "I don't think Pat has ever panicked in his life and I think I'm pretty similar," said the Kiwi, who also works as Australia's assistant coach. "But we understand the ramifications of losing four in a row and how difficult it makes the season.
"It's tough because obviously you come into the season with high expectations after last year and then a very good start. But we just haven't been near our best in the last four games."
Cummins got danger-man Jos Buttler caught behind for a duck, and only conceded six runs in his first two overs of the power play. But Gujarat captain Shubman Gill was in superb touch, making a controlled 61 not out off 43 to guide his side to victory.
RELATED:
Mitch Marsh statement stuns cricket world after call on future
Candice Warner questions Ricky Ponting over 'disappointing' move
He was aided by a sparkling 49 off 29 from all-rounder Washington Sundar, as Gujarat reached the total with seven wickets in hand and 20 balls to spare. Cummins didn't get much support from the rest of his attack, which was without the axed Adam Zampa for the second match running.
Zampa was left out of the last game, with Cummins and the Sunrisers' coaching staff appearing to misjudge how much spin would come into the contest. But they went without the Aussie tweaker again on Sunday night in a stunning fall from grace for the white-ball specialist.
Both Rahul chahar and Adam zampa should have played all 5 matches together But why @SunRisers are not playing them together ? Zeeshan is not at all threatening the opposition. You need experience to win matches in IPL
— O'Range FIRE 🔥 Idhi 🚩 (@Sunrisers_Hyd) April 6, 2025
Why not using Rahul Chahar ? I thought him and Adam Zampa will play they have got that completely wrong Pat Cummins batted well and bowled well in the powerplay today
— Manas (@manas0118) April 6, 2025
Changes and strategies are required for better results.We have good spinners. Like Rahul chahar, Adam zampa Let's give them a chance and see if they can help us to win.@SunRisers
— palla (@PallaPawankumar) April 6, 2025
Mohammed Siraj was superb for the Titans, picking up 4-17 in four overs. Siraj, who was dropped from India's team for the ODI Champions Trophy last month, said the break made him work on his bowling.
"At the start (of the break), I could not digest," Siraj said about his axing. "But then I explained to myself that I have so many things planned. It (selection for Champions Trophy) was not to be, but I concentrated on my mindset, my fitness. Enjoying my bowling now."
with agencies
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gabriel Ibitoye is the most divisive player in English rugby
Whether you are staring at his entrancing footwork or examining his mind-bending statistics, you can quickly start to feel dizzy around Gabriel Ibitoye. At the end of the regular season, the Bristol Bears winger finished as the Gallagher's Premiership joint top try scorer with Ollie Hassell-Collins, having played fewer games. Advertisement Among English wings, he finished top for carries (152), break assists (11), metres gained (1179), offloads (25) and passes (117) – the latter three categories by massive margins. Extrapolate that across the United Rugby Championship and Top 14 and no other wing in Europe scores more tries, gains more metres, passes more frequently or carries more on a per-80 minute basis than Ibitoye, according to statistics provided by Opta. Even Bordeaux sensation Louis Bielle-Biarrey does not match his strike rate of more than a try a game. And yet the 27-year-old remains uncapped by England and did not even feature in head coach Steve Borthwick's most recent training squad, which did not include any Lions, Bath or Northampton players. Advertisement Certainly with the likes of Tommy Freeman, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Tom Roebuck, England are well stocked in the wing department, but Ibitoye's combination of devastating footwork and freakish handling skills seem born from a different planet. It is hard to escape the feeling that there's a peculiar English mistrust of those who possess a startling point of difference over more well-rounded alternatives, a sentiment shared by Pat Lam, the Bears director of rugby. 'I honestly believe he would be an All Black if he was born there, I really do,' Lam told Telegraph Sport. 'I know Scott Robertson well and if he was a Kiwi he would be an All Black and thriving at that.' Beyond reference to the 'competitive arena' in the wide positions, Borthwick has not directly referenced why he has overlooked Ibitoye. Others have taken up that mantle on his behalf, referencing Ibitoye's defence, high-ball work and perceived work-rate. There are few more divisive players in the Premiership on social media. Advertisement Lam is keen to address what he calls some 'lazy narratives' that have sprung up around Ibitoye, authorising Bristol's strength and conditioning team to release the metrics they keep on players' work-rate in games. On average, Ibitoye will record up to 1,200 metres of high speed running, which is defined as 19km/h in an average game – more than a Bronco Test and more than 400m of very high-speed running, defined as 25.2 km/h; this would be the equivalent of running a 5km race in 11min 54sec. Ibitoye will also record 23 repeat-effort bouts which consist of three individual efforts separated by 20 seconds or less. 'Sometimes with the guys who are different you find that they don't work but honestly his work-rate is so high,' Lam said. His other standout quality, according to Lam, is his game intelligence and being able to anticipate how play will develop. 'It is not an accident that he ends up in the right places,' Lam said. 'When you understand the game, you're one step ahead so then you can get to those positions really quickly.' Advertisement As an example, Lam highlights Ibitoye's try against Harlequins at the Stoop earlier this season (see 1m 33sec into video below). By his standards, it was a fairly routine affair, taking Kieran Marmion's pass and running 40 metres untouched, but the simplicity of the finish belies the anticipation of where the space would be. 'He came from the other wing on that score because he could see that the D was coming up on the edge and he started to wander down the front line and then he saw there was no one down the short side,' Lam said. 'We have a call for it and he said that to Kieran and then, bang, he was able to give the dummy. He knew that Gabs was there without looking. Gabs changed his angle as well to get the run-in. That's an example of his ability to know what is going to happen next and put himself in a position to do it.' Lam does not pretend that Ibitoye is the complete package. He would not match the high-ball work of either Freeman or Roebuck. Defensively, he can occasionally look vulnerable, but Lam believes that Ibitoye's failings are put under a greater microscope than his rivals. Advertisement 'He has made mistakes,' Lam said. 'I have seen all those England wingers miss tackles but when they miss tackles no one talks about it. When he misses a tackle, everyone focuses on that rather than the eight or nine that he makes. Same with his high-ball work. You can set the narrative to anything you want if you go searching for examples.' After being named in the Premiership's team of the season, Ibitoye will have a further opportunity to put his name in lights in Friday's Premiership semi-final against Bath at the Rec. Lam believes that should Ibitoye carry over his form into next season then Borthwick would have no choice but to pick him. 'There's no doubt when Steve came in with the England team a couple of years ago that he would have struggled in the way they were playing,' Lam said. 'But the England team now, with the way they have evolved, the generation that are coming through now and the desire to attack, he would really thrive with that. Advertisement 'There's so many good players, but Gabs is something that is slightly different to everyone else. Someone like Tommy Freeman is a class player, but you need a complement to him. Tommy does the basics really well. He might not have the skill-set that Gabs has but he has the basics of chase hard, get up quickly, he's strong, he's powerful, he's tall. If those two played together you would have a great complement.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
USA Today
17 hours ago
- USA Today
Adam Scott playing 'old man par golf' at U.S. Open, sits 3 shots off lead after 36 holes
Adam Scott playing 'old man par golf' at U.S. Open, sits 3 shots off lead after 36 holes OAKMONT, Pa. – Adam Scott had the line of the day on Thursday to describe the conditions of Oakmont Country Club for the 125th U.S. Open. 'It's really hard. But it's not blow your brains out kind of hard just yet,' he said after shooting 70. One day later, he was asked for a status update. 'Getting there,' he said. 'Guns loaded, maybe.' But so far, it's been relatively stress-free for the Aussie, who is making his 96thconsecutive major appearance at this week's U.S. Open, the longest active streak. After a pair of even-par 70s at Oakmont, he sits T-4, three strokes behind 36-hole leader Sam Burns, and is a legitimate threat to win his second major title. 'I'm playing old-man-par golf at the moment,' he said of eight birdies and eight bogeys and the rest pars at the midway point of the season's third major. Scott, who will turn 45 on the eve of the British Open next month, knows it has been more than 12 years since he won his lone major at the 2013 Masters and his window to add to his total may be running out. How would he describe his window? 'Ajar,' he deadpanned to laughter. 'I'd be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend,' he said. 'Right now, that's really what I'm here to do, and I feel like there's probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game is looking better. But I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year.' Scott is winless on the PGA Tour since the 2020 Genesis Invitational and hasn't recorded a top-10 finish this season. He blamed his iron game, but that part of his game has come alive so far this week to go along with a fairway finder off the tee. He ranks second in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, which has taken much of the stress off the rest of his game, and he ranks seventh in both SG: Tee to Green and Approach the Green and fourth in proximity to the hole. Golf Channel's Paul McGinley summed up well what the veteran Scott has been able to do so far at a place where he experienced one of his lowest of lows in 2007 when he missed the cut. 'The golf swing hasn't changed, but this is kind of out of left field,' McGinley said. 'All of his numbers are bad this year, he hasn't had a top 10… so for him to show up and drive it as well as he has, hit his irons as well as he has, and play with this kind of form, I mean, he looks like a guy who can go out there, put some numbers up on the board and add to his major championship total, and nobody would have really talked about him coming into this week.' Scott visited Oakmont for a practice round the Monday after the Memorial and then made a conscious decision to avoid playing the course too much before the championship got underway. He played early Monday, took Tuesday off and did nine holes Wednesday morning. 'Not that I know the course so well but I didn't want to see balls in the rough and hacking around for three days,' he said. Last month, he made a late run at the PGA Championship before backing up a bit. He'd like nothing more than to be in the trophy hunt and see if his experience can deliver him another major moment. 'I think another major more would really go a long way in fulfilling my own self, when it's all said and done,' he said. 'This is all I'm really playing for are these big events. There's probably eight of them off the top of my mind a year that I really want to win.'
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scott's 'old-man par golf' has him in the hunt at US Open
Former Masters champion Adam Scott of Australia fired back-to-back rounds of 70 to stand fourth on level par 140 after 36 holes at the US Open at Oakmont (Warren Little) Adam Scott finds himself sharing fourth at the US Open playing "old-man-par golf," and the 44-year-old Australian says he just might be playing well enough to capture another major title. Scott, playing in his 96th consecutive major tournament, has fired back-to-back 70s in the first two rounds at Oakmont to stand on 140, three strokes behind leader Sam Burns and the only player at par or better with a major title. Advertisement "I feel like this is what I've been working towards," Scott said. "I was kind of in the mix late at the PGA, and now putting myself in this one for the weekend -- it's a long way to go, but I feel like my game is in good enough shape to do this." World number 42 Scott became the first Aussie to win the Masters in 2013, beating Angel Cabrera in a playoff. The most recent of his 14 career PGA Tour titles was in 2020 at Riviera, although he was runner-up last year at the Scottish Open and BMW Championship. "Of course I'd like to win lots more tournaments, any of them, to be perfectly honest. I'd like to win something," Scott said. Advertisement "I've put together a nice career, but I think another major more would really go a long way in fulfilling my own self, when it's all said and done. "This is all I'm really playing for are these big events. There's probably eight of them off the top of my mind a year that I really want to win." Asked how he would describe his career window to win a US Open, Scott said, "Ajar." Scott, whose major streak began with the 2001 British Open, has the second-longest run of major appearances after the record 146 by Jack Nicklaus 1962-1998. Scott admitted that his consistency at playing in majors might go underappreciated. Advertisement "Maybe it does," he said. "But I'd be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend. That's really what I'm here to do." Scott said he has quietly been building confidence. "There has probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game is looking better, but I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year," Scott said. "For most of the first two days, I've been in the fairway off the tee, and therefore hasn't been too much stress in the rounds." While handfuls of contenders have charged only to fall by the wayside, Scott's old-man golf is keeping him in the hunt. Advertisement "It's just hard out there," Scott said. "It's hard to keep it going when guys have got on a run. It seems like they've come back a bit." Heavy rain drenched the course on Friday night, likely making the firm and fast greens more receptive come the weekend. "The rain might keep it under control, hopefully, and spare us some frustrations," he said. js/bb
