Ben Cutting’s timely hits took the pressure off me: Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh of Sunrisers Hyderabad had taken his side to victory in their last clash against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday. With the win, Sunrisers became the first team to qualify for the playoffs in this season of the IPL.

Chasing 180 to win, SRH had a good start with their skipper David Warner scoring a half-century before he was dismissed hit wicket off the bowling of Axar Patel. But the Sunrisers middle-order came together to put up a good chase with Deepak Hooda scoring a valuable 34 off 22 balls, and Yuvraj Singh and Ben Cutting finished things off with a 24-ball 42 from Yuvraj and Ben with an 11-ball 18.

Yuvi was happy with the team effort with everyone chipping in with valuable runs. “As the ball gets older, it is hard to hit. You need to spend some time at the wicket. I know the Mohali wicket, I have been brought up playing here, so I know you’ve got to spend some time and get set, and then start hitting. I think everybody contributed towards the win – Hooda, David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan. We had good partnerships and that is the reason we could get to the end.”

Yuvraj Singh revealed that the two sixes from Cutting in the 18th and 19th over released the pressure off him. “Ben Cutting hit the ball when it was much needed (six off Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma in the 18th and 19th over respectively) and that took the pressure off me,” said the local boy Yuvraj Singh.

When asked about the 18th over from Mohit Sharma, which had gone for 19 runs and put SRH on the driver’s seat, Yuvraj said, “I think in these situations the bowler is much under more pressure (than the batting side). Mohit (Sharma) has been a terrific bowler for Kings XI Punjab and won them many games in the death. So I thought rather than making a mistake, I wanted to hit the ball which was in my arc. If he bowled good yorkers or good areas, then you have to give (respect) to the bowler.”

Speaking about the team’s performance he said, “Everybody has contributed really well. Unfortunately, Ashish Nehra had an injury today. Hopefully, we can do well in the last two games and eventually get into the last four. I hope we are there.”

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