Simon Helmot, the assistant coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad, has predicted that his club will fire in the final of the Indian Premier League against Kolkata Knight Riders as guided by Pat Cummins’ cricketing knowledge.
“We played last night game (Qualifier 2) on a slow wicket. We looked at it and we are going to play exactly like that in the finals against KKR.” The final will be held on Sunday at Chepauk.
“Our philosophy must stay. We have been doing it all season and that’s how we got to where we are now. There will also not be any change in our approach for the finals,” said Helmot after the game during a press conference.
“And he did well under pressure too, Rahul Tripathi. He continued that momentum throughout innings together with Trav and Klaasen.”
With bat, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head and Rahul Tripathi were crowned SRH heroes when they made 175/9 batting first. They proved sufficient as they confined RR at 139/7 within allocated twenty overs.
SRH lost to KKR in Qualifier 1 but defeated Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2.
He described about the strip, “The wicket looked good and shiny; so we got off to fairly good start yet perhaps lost one too many wickets early on.”
“As we got through into innings there was a lot more slower off-cutters and bouncers going around – those second innings,” he said.
“Our plan was to get ball slightly older bowl it hard into wicket if we could get some reaction out of it, then obviously spin was going to play its part.”
Rajasthan Royals’ batsmen were completely unsuccessful while SRH’s dark horse spin duo Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed spun them down for a 36-run victory.
According to Helmot, Captain Cummins’ decisive capability alongside his relational proximity to head coach Daniel Vettori were commendable.
“Captain takes credit for it. He made the right decisions when he thought that conditions were conducive for spin.
“It was two right-handed batsmen at crease, and he felt that a left-arm orthodox spinner could come into play. And if Abhishek did it on gut feel, then what a wonderful decision because he changed the complexion of the game.
“They have got a good understanding between them (Pat and Dan) with a lot of ideas being thrown around. They give players freedom to do what they want to do in the field and we saw it today.”
In addition, Helmot stated Cummins does not participate much in team meetings but loves giving his teammates freedom of play.
“He is very practical guy; very humble; very empathetic towards his fellow teammates as well as coaching staff. He also gets into statistics and just understands exactly what are the conditions against particular oppositions.
“In any meeting there is no waste of time by him. We had our team meeting for today which lasted 35 seconds; though, lots of information has already been discussed.”
“There have been many one-on-ones with the fielding coach, bowling coach, batting coach as well.” Fewer big group meetings are preferred according to Helmot.
‘The decision makers were very smart in letting go Shahbaz Ahmed.’
For SRH, this season’s best signings must be Shahbaz Ahmed; an all-round player. Helmot also commended him for being a multi-skilled individual.
“I’m not going to get into how it happened but he is a “multifaceted” guy with great experience, who opens the batting or can bat in the middle order and bowl for most of the innings anywhere,” he said.
“That was a very wise move by people in charge when there was a chance for trade, I think.”
“He’s played lots of games for us and alongside Nitish Reddy has been cruciality as well as versatility which makes it easier in terms of squad balance,” signed off Helmot.
