Sunrisers captain Cummins explains rationale behind using Sanvir as impact sub ahead of Umran against KKR

AHMEDABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins explained the rationale behind using Sanvir Singh as an impact substitute as opposed to Umran Malik against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Qualifier 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

After winning the toss and opting to bat, SRH tottered at 121/6 in the 14th over when the team decided to introduce Sanvir as an impact sub.

After a failed gamble with the toss, SRH's wager on Sanvir backfired as Sunil Narine used his experience and bewitching spin craft to dismiss the batter for a golden duck.

The ball spun sharply and Sanvir tried to negate it by blocking it. This resulted in the ball deflecting off the pads and crashing into the stumps.

Notably, Jammu tearaway Umran Malik was among the Impact Subs. His inclusion served as an indication of Hyderabad's intention of bringing him in the second innings to bolster the bowling line-up.

After missing out on the opportunity to punch their ticket straight to the final, Cummins opened up about the reason for introducing Sanvir instead of Umran.

"Sunny (Sanvir) played the last game, we were hoping not to use the batting sub to use Umran but felt the batting was important (due to the situation)," Cummins said after the game.

Throughout the night, every decision that SRH took went against them. They managed to put a competitive total of 159 on the board after Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen's 62-run stand.

But while defending their total, they didn't help themselves as several catches went down. The dropped catches didn't allow the pressure to build in the KKR camp.

The only message that Cummins had for his team was to put the result aside quickly and focus on the Qualifier 2 clash.

"Try to put this day behind quickly, good thing we have another crack at it. We were off the pace. You have these days in T20 cricket when it doesn't work out. We didn't get enough starts but didn't go on with bat. Not good with the ball," Cummins said.

"Thought KKR bowled well and the wicket got better, it did a bit early. It happens. Think it's easy to move on, going to a new venue helps. You start again. We have a good body of work too. To sum it up, nothing went their way," he concluded.

With 160 to chase, KKR hardly broke a sweat. The Knights stepped on the crease without Phil Salt's presence in the opening slot.

In place of the English opener, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine opened the innings for the first time in the season.

Despite the change, the plan was to go all guns blazing from the get-go. They quickly put 44 runs on the board before T Natarajan showed Gurbaz the way back to the dugout.

KKR lost Narine too, but Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer ensured KKR sealed their place in the final with an 8-wicket win and more than six overs to spare.