Pitch No. 5 was used for the third time in IPL 2026 on Monday. It was a throwback to the Chepauk of old when the ball would stop at the adjacent Bells Road before coming on to the bat. It was the kind of surface where Dwayne Bravo used to be deadly with his dippers.
On Monday, however, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) adapted to the conditions better than hosts Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Nearly 40% of the balls SRH's seamers bowled were slower ones (39 out of 102), according to ESPNcricinfo's logs. The slower variations fetched them four wickets while limiting CSK's batters to 49 runs. In stark contrast, only 17% of the balls that CSK's seamers bowled were slower ones (12 out of 72). They didn't get a single wicket through taking pace off and ended up conceding 23 runs off them. This was where the game was won and lost.
SRH actually needed time to suss out the conditions after they were asked to bowl first. Nitish Kumar Reddy went searching for swing and erred too full, giving up two fours and a six to Sanju Samson in the first over. Then, in the third over, Pat Cummins had Samson nicking behind by darting a near-140kph delivery on a Test-match length.
When Urvil Patel came out at No. 3, Cummins placed a fielder at short square-leg and another at deep square-leg. He was looking to bounce Urvil like Kagiso Rabada had done at this very venue last month. Except the result was different: Urvil firmly pulled Cummins over the fielder in the deep.
SRH then pivoted to the slower ball and kept bowling into the pitch. "We thought there might be something in the pitch," SRH's pace-bowling coach James Franklin said after they beat CSK. "That proved to be the case, it probably wasn't our best start with the ball and it wasn't until Pat came in third over and got the breakthrough of Sanju and then we got a little bit more information from the pitch that actually taking the pace off into the surface was going to be effective from the seamers. And that proved to be the case throughout the innings as well, so we started to execute that a lot more."
When Kartik Sharma was threatening to rise above the conditions, Cummins took pace off and hid it away from the swinging arc of the batter, with both deep point and sweeper cover in place. Kartik couldn't manufacture enough pace for himself and ended up holing out to sweeper cover.
Ambati Rayudu and Mitchell McClenaghan on Kishan's match-winning knock
Cummins had burst onto the scene as a bowler with extreme pace in 2011 after roughing Mitchell Marsh up in a Sheffield Shield game in Sydney. In his first Test later that year, he peppered Jacques Kallis with rapid short balls in Johannesburg. He still competes with Mitchell Starc's pace in the Australia nets, but has recently learnt to befuddle batters with lack of pace. No overseas bowler has bowled more slower balls than Cummins' 154 since IPL 2024, when he joined SRH.
"Pat has got class," Franklin said. "He has got the amazing ability to adapt to what a game needs or a surface needs. His skill execution is as high as you can get. He stands at the moment as one of the elite bowlers in the world because he has got an amazing ability to not only adapt to conditions but adapt to game situations and have an impact. Again, tonight he read the wicket, he used his cutters a lot and I think that sort of skillset from Pat has really come in the last couple of years of playing the IPL."
Sakib Hussain doesn't have Cummins' experience - he only made his IPL debut this season - but his control over the slower ball was just as remarkable as his captain's. Eighteen of his 24 balls were slower ones and he conceded only 23 runs off those while taking two wickets. Knocking Shivam Dube over with a 109.3kph cutter in the 19th over was the chef's kiss.
"I think everyone might have seen what a weapon his slower ball is," Franklin said of Sakib. "He's learning a lot every game that he's playing. Not every game is going to be perfect because he is a young bowler and he's raw but when he nails his execution and he adapts to what the game needs and what the surface needs, he's been brilliant for us. Obviously that surface tonight really suited his slow ball."
Mitchell McClenaghan on CSK's reluctance to use slower balls costing them
In the chase, CSK's attack went pace-on, which pushed the off switch on their final home game this season. Spencer Johnson's express pace worked against him on this track. Anshul's Kamboj's on-pace length balls were put away by Ishan Kishan. This surface also exposed the limitations in the CSK attack. They just didn't have a bowler who could bowl defensively like Cummins or Sakib had done.
"They [SRH] have had to use cutters in their wicket, which is very good," CSK coach Stephen Fleming said. "So they went to that pretty well with Pat Cummins leading the way. Our bowlers are more seam bowlers. This was the first time we've had a pitch that's slow and holding, and we didn't get the same assistance.
"I felt [maybe there was] a little bit of moisture from a little bit of dew. I'm not sure, but it certainly wasn't as inconsistent as what we felt in the first innings. We felt 180 on that wicket, getting slower, maybe was going to be a good score. They had a good partnership with [Heinrich] Klaasen and Ishan Kishan, which maybe blunted us a little bit. But yeah, I felt we weren't able to get the same amount of inconsistency as what they did."
The trajectories of the CSK and SRH campaigns are just as contrasting as their bowling approaches on Monday. CSK are on the brink of elimination, while SRH are through to the playoffs and are still in contention for a top-two finish.