It was a tough pill to swallow for Pat Cummins and his Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Monday night, where rain cancelled their match against Delhi Capitals to end their IPL 2025 campaign.

Needing to win each of their remaining fixtures, SRH had – thanks largely to Cummins – put themselves in prime position to pocket two points. But set a target of 134, SRH had to spend the second half of their evening watching the rain plummet down in Hyderabad. In the end, the abandonment handed each point one point which while good enough to keep DC in the playoffs race, canceled out SRH. 

It was Cummins who bowled one of his best spell in IPL history – as well as the most successful by a franchise captain in the Powerplay ever – to got the ball rolling in the home team’s favour. Cummins claimed 3/19 off for overs, helping shred DC to 29/5 in stands as their worst start this season. 

Cummins, after winning the toss, took the new ball and struck immediately to have Karun Nair nicking off to the first delivery of the match. He proceeded to take wickets off the first balls of his second and third overs as as well, each dismissal pouched by wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, to give SRH a rousing start. 

Faf du Plessis advanced and nicked Cummins and Abishek Porel miscued a flick shot to be well taken by a running Kishan at square leg. 

Harshal Patel then removed Axar Patel and Jaydev Unadkat sent back KL Rahul, as DC lost have their side in 7.1 overs. Tristan Stubbs (41* from 36 balls) and Impact Player Ashutosh Sharma (41 off 26) provided the fightback to get DC to 133/7 in 20 overs, which looked like a total SRH could overhaul, but rain meant their innings never began. 

And so, with three games to go, last season’s runners-up are mathematically out of the IPL 2025 playoffs race. Their opponents remain in the mix but with just two wins from their past seven matches, DC are struggling.