Following a heavy defeat to the Gujarat Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins found himself dealing with another kind of setback in the IPL 2026. The Australian was fined after his side was reported for a slow over rate during their meeting with the Titans on Tuesday. The IPL Governing Council then imposed a penalty of Rs 12 lakh on Cummins for the offence.
Keeping over-rates up has not been a new issue across the league. This season, several IPL captains have already faced reprimands from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for slow over-rate breaches. What stood out in Cummins’ case was that the match actually finished with a total of 34.5 overs played, yet the over-rate fine was still applied.
In an official statement, the IPL noted that “Pat Cummins, Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, has been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate during Match No. 56 of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.” The league added that because this was Hyderabad’s first violation of the season under Article 2.22 of the IPL Code of Conduct—covering minimum over-rate offences—Cummins was charged INR 12 lakhs.
Turning to the game itself, the Titans dismantled SRH after the hosts posted a target of only 168. Gujarat restricted Sunrisers to 86 in their chase. The Titans’ fast bowlers repeatedly attacked hard lengths, exploiting conditions that offered significant help to the seamers as the innings unfolded.
Speaking on the gap between the two bowling displays, Cummins suggested SRH may not have maintained the same discipline for long enough during Gujarat’s innings. “Yeah, I mean, you always look at it. It looked like a pretty tough wicket once you kind of hit that back of the length, and they didn’t really give us much to score. So, perhaps in our bowling innings, you kind of, you learn from that, you think maybe we could have held our lengths just a little bit longer,” Cummins said after the defeat.
Cummins also praised the Titans for executing their plans with precision on a surface that demanded careful execution. “I feel they bowled really well in that second innings. I was pretty happy with it when we walked off at the start, but yeah, pretty tricky wicket. I think they made the most of it, their bowlers, they bowled really well. So, yeah, maybe try and look at ways to get through that spell, but, you know, they deserve a bit of credit,” he added.
The SRH captain went a step further by describing Gujarat’s bowling as close to the highest level of T20 cricket. “But overall, you know, that’s as good as T20 bowling as you’re going to see from them,” Cummins said.
Despite the collapse and the unusual off-day from SRH’s otherwise explosive batting unit, Cummins indicated he would not make excuses or try to overreact to the result.
