Pat Cummins proves his top dollar IPL price represents value for money with destruction of Kiwis
The most expensive overseas player in IPL history proved his value in rolling New Zealand at the MCG. And the man who signed the cheque has revealed he would happily have gone higher.
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When the bidding for Pat Cummins at this year’s IPL auction stopped at $3.2 million, Brendon McCullum was smiling for more than one reason.
The former New Zealand captain, now coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders not only got his man, he also saved $1.5 million.
That’s how much more cash he was willing to splash to snare the world’s best bowler who showed on the morning of day three at the MCG just why he would have been worth the massive spend.
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In just two balls in the third over of the morning Cummins turned the screws so hard on New Zealand their collective team shoulders just slumped.
Cummins removed first Ross Taylor, on the verge of becoming his country’s all-time leading run-scorer in Test cricket, then Henry Nicholls the very next ball.
The dismissal of Nicholls was Cummins first LBW in nearly 18 months, with his 70 wickets since the last one in South Africa coming just two ways - bowled or caught.
Aussie captain Tim Paine took a moment or two before ultimately giving Cummins a traditional hat-trick ball field – nearly everyone in the slips, two gully and a bat pad.
The delivery, aimed at the stumps, was fended off by BJ Watling. But it was the mark of a man who Paine said was just “relentless”.
Paine bowled Cummins for almost the entire first hour of the day, and went straight back to him after lunch.
Cummins delivered two more scalps for his skipper, finishing with 5-28, his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests. It also came on the back of match haul of 9-99 in Melbourne last year against India.
Before the Boxing Day Test, in the wake of Cummins’ massive IPL earn, Paine was asked why the world’s best bowler was so good.
“His line and length is outstanding. He’s always at the batsmen, always has them under pressure, is always building pressure,” Paine said.
“If you do that to any batter for a long period of time you can take wickets and Pat certainly does that, he creates a lot of pressure every time he’s bowling.
“He obviously bowls at high speed, with great control a good bouncer, so he’s got all the tools and he gets it right more often than not. He’s a pretty special bowler.”
Cummins’ return of 59 Test wickets this year, so far, is the best for an Aussie bowler since Nathan Lyon took 63 in 2017.
Shane Warne said the 26-year-old “gets better every time I see him”.
Paine agreed, declaring Cummins, who has only played 28 Tests, was a thinking man’s fast bowler, loaded with a capacity to deal with every different situation as he faced it.
“I think he’s getting better with experience. He’s not always bowling high 140kmh pace any more,” Paine said.
“We think he’s bowling within himself, which is a great skill and attribute to be able to have, to bowl slightly within yourself and still be good enough and quick enough to knock over the best players in the world.
“Then when there’s not much in the wicket he can crack it back up at high speeds. He’s extremely valuable.”
His ever-growing bank balance is proof positive of that.