IPL 2026 – SRH vs CSK – Aaron Finch and Ambati Rayudu praise Shivang Kumar and Sakib Hussain

Ravi Singh

2 days ago

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Shivang came on immediately after the powerplay and gave away just seven runs, and then eight more in his next, and three in his last, the 12th of the innings to finish with 1 for 18, that wicket the big one of Dewald Brevis.

“Smart bowling by Shivang, especially earlier on. We have been calling for bowlers to be brave in the middle overs, to toss it up there, lure batsmen to make a mistake, and that is a fantastic example of somebody doing that, being brave,” Ambati Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut after the game. “I think he bowled a fantastic spell today. I think he was the difference in pulling the game back towards SRH. Otherwise, with the start that CSK had [76 for 3 after six overs in a chase of 195], they should have pushed through pretty easily.”

Speaking specifically about the Brevis dismissal – it was tossed up and drifting away from the right-handed Brevis, who sliced an attempted loft down the ground – Aaron Finch said, “He got it wide enough, didn’t he? [Brevis] had to reach for it. He was also on the back foot, Brevis. He was none of three [balls], and he would have been like, ‘come on, I need to get away’.

“So smart bowling, understanding when to use it and how to use that variation of pace is really important to… he does that.”

In SRH’s previous game, their bowling stars were two newbies, Sakib one of them and Praful Hinge the other. They both returned four-fors in their IPL debuts, Hinge, later named the Player of the Match, quite the star after picking up three wickets in the first over of Rajasthan Royals’ chase.

Hinge had a bit of the second-game blues against CSK, conceding 53 runs from his first three overs, though he bounced back nicely in the end, conceding just seven runs in the final over of the chase with an around-the-wicket plan and picking up the wicket of Jamie Overton.

No blues for Sakib, though. He gave away 13 runs in his powerplay over, seven and six in his overs in the middle phase, and then just six runs in the 17th of the innings, also picking up the wicket of Shivam Dube in that last over. Just when Dube, then on 21 off 15 balls, was looking like he would take CSK over the line.

“It certainly was [the turning point] because it almost looked like Dube was setting himself to [be] that real finisher towards the back end and just got out right at the wrong time,” Finch said. “An inexperienced bowler understanding just what was required at the time. It’s a great thing to see.

“You’ve got one end of the stick where you’ve got Hinge, who has a great game [but] then goes around the park. But then you’ve got Sakib, who then all of a sudden starts executing beautifully just with his ability to use pace-off. Because we know that Dubey wants it full, he wants it fast, he wants it one pace consistently. So just continually to change it up was brilliant.”

Sakib also got the ball to shape into the right-hand batters, as Rayudu pointed out.

“He has a unique action, it’s not easy to pick the ball out of his hand,” Rayudu said. “And because of the tail [he gets], he bowled the one that shapes away from the right-hander, or maybe coming into Dube, that ball actually just came in a little bit and Dube generally expects a wide yorker because people tend to bowl wide yorkers to him. So he was surprised when it was bowled straight. So that’s the ignorance of youth, if you can call that. But it worked tonight.”

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