SKY proves the limit for Cummins, Head and Sunrisers

Travis Head continued his good form ahead of the T20 World Cup, and Pat Cummins won a batting award, but the duo's efforts have been insufficient to carry Sunrisers Hyderabad to victory over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

Head cracked a swift 30-ball 48, and Cummins was honoured for the highest-strike in the match with an unbeaten 35 from 17 balls.

Cummins then followed up with a wicket maiden as Sunrisers tried to protect their total of 8-173 and plant one foot into the playoffs.

But Mumbai recovered from 3-31 to win by seven wickets with 16 balls to spare thanks to a stunning innings from Suryakumar Yadav.

Known as SKY, he hit an unbeaten 102 from 51 balls, clinching victory and bringing up his century with a six.

That kept Tim David's Indians in with a chance of the playoffs, though at eight points from 12 matches they remain two wins adrift of the qualifying quartet in ninth, among which are Sunrisers with 12 points.

Head was bowled off a no ball on 24 and dropped at third man on 44, but failed to punish the latter error as he was soon caught at deep backward square leg off Piyush Chawla.

With Chawla and Hardik Pandya taking three wickets a apiece and Jasprit Bumrah parsimonious as usual, Sunrisers slipped to 8-138. However, with Cummins hitting out the last 21 balls went for 37 runs to give the visitors a potentially defendable total.  

Loose bowling gave Indians a flier, with 26 runs off the opening nine balls, but there were six runs off the next 19 balls as wickets fell, including Cummins dismissing Rohit Sharma for a fourth time in his wicket maiden.

In the sixth over, however, Cummins went for 16, including a six by SKY. The right-hander then took Marco Jansen for two sixes and two fours in the following over and Mumbai were up and running.

After that the only issue was whether SKY's fatigue would get the better off him. 

But like Glenn Maxwell at the World Cup, he hobbled on, smacking Cummins for 4-4-6 to end the 17th over as Indians finished at a sprint.

IPL 2024 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Kolkata Knight Riders KKR	14	9	3	0	2	1.428	0	20
2 Sunrisers Hyderabad SUN	14	8	5	0	1	0.414	0	17
3 Rajasthan Royals RAJ	14	8	5	0	1	0.273	0	17
4 Royal Challengers Bengaluru Men RCB	14	7	7	0	0	0.459	0	14
5 Chennai Super Kings CSK	14	7	7	0	0	0.392	0	14
6 Delhi Capitals Men DEL	14	7	7	0	0	-0.377	0	14
7 Lucknow Super Giants LSG	14	7	7	0	0	-0.667	0	14
8 Gujarat Titans GUT	14	5	7	0	2	-1.063	0	12
9 Punjab Kings KXI	14	5	9	0	0	-0.353	0	10
10 Mumbai Indians MI	14	4	10	0	0	-0.318	0	8

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points

Australians in IPL 2024

Delhi Capitals: Mitch Marsh (A$1.2m), David Warner (A$1.16m), Jhye Richardson (A$890,000), Jake Fraser-McGurk (A$92,000)

Gujarat Titans: Spencer Johnson (A$1.78m), Matthew Wade (A$446,000)

Kolkata Knight Riders: Mitchell Starc (A$4.43m)

Lucknow Super Giants: Marcus Stoinis (A$1.7m), Ashton Turner (A$178,000)

Mumbai Indians: Tim David (A$1.53m)

Punjab Kings: Nathan Ellis (A$135,000)

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Cameron Green (A$3.15m), Glenn Maxwell (A$2m)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (A$3.67m), Travis Head (A$1.2m)

*Prices in AUD, conversions correct at time of auction