Kolkata, April 3 (NationPress) Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins acknowledged that his squad had no one to blame but themselves after enduring a devastating 80-run defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 15 of the Indian Premier League 2025 on Thursday evening.

His remarks encapsulated SRH’s performance—careless in the field, erratic with the ball during critical moments, and thoroughly outperformed with the bat. KKR, in their first home match of the season, were keen to entertain their fans at Eden Gardens.

Even though early challenges saw Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (7) dismissed cheaply, a steady partnership between Ajinkya Rahane (38 off 27) and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50 off 32) laid a solid foundation. However, it was in the latter stage of the innings that KKR genuinely accelerated.

"It wasn't a great night for us. During the mid-innings break, we felt it was achievable. The pitch was quite good. We conceded too many runs in the field and, unfortunately, fell short with the bat. We need to face the reality—three consecutive games have not gone our way," Cummins stated following the match.

Venkatesh Iyer (60 off 29) delivered a pivotal innings, partnering well with Rinku Singh (32 not out off 17). The pair accumulated 78 runs in the last five overs, lifting KKR to a total of 200/6—the highest score of the season thus far.

As the match progressed, SRH’s seamers faltered in the death overs, giving away vital boundaries. The chase, however, fell apart almost immediately. Vaibhav Arora dismissed Travis Head for a mere four runs on the second delivery of the innings.

Harshit Rana followed suit with a cunning slower ball to get rid of Abhishek Sharma. By the time Arora struck again to send Heinrich Klaasen back to the pavilion, SRH was reeling at 9/3 within three overs. "Less than two weeks ago, we scored 280 runs. Our batters are at their best when they go for it, but we need to consider whether we could choose different strategies," Cummins added.

Varun Chakravarthy (3-22) compounded SRH's problems in the middle overs, eliminating any chances of a comeback by sending Cummins himself back to the clubhouse. Andre Russell (2-20) then finished off the tail as SRH crumbled for only 120 in 17 overs. Adding to KKR’s victory was a landmark achievement for Sunil Narine, who reached his 200th wicket for the franchise, further cementing his legendary reputation.

However, for Cummins, the most disappointing aspect was their lackluster fielding. "I was probably more upset with our fielding—some dropped catches and a few misfields that we need to address. Overall, our bowling was decent; they just batted well towards the end. We only bowled three overs of spin and didn’t think there would be much turn. The cutters were gripping for the pacers, so they opted for that approach," Cummins concluded.