Sun going down on Cummins' Sunrisers amid more IPL woe

Things are looking increasingly bleak for Pat Cummins' Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL after both the Australia captain and his chief batting lieutenant Travis Head struggled again in an emphatic home defeat to the Mumbai Indians.

Up against Rohit Sharma, his old adversary as India skipper, Cummins this time lost hands down at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, having his bowling bashed by the Mumbai opener while the Indians eased to a seven-wicket win that leaves the Sunrisers, last year's runners-up, in severe peril of missing the play-offs.

Sharma was Mumbai's impact sub and lived up to the billing handsomely as he crashed his second-straight half-century (70 off 46 balls) to propel the five-time champions to their target on 3-146 with 26 balls still remaining.

His brilliant knock began at a heavy cost to Cummins, whose third ball to him was deposited unceremoniously into the stands over deep square leg.

Cummins has a fine record of dismissing Sharma in the IPL - five times in all - but on this occasion, the Indian luminary won the day, taking 17 in 10 balls off his bowling as the Australia skipper ended up with ragged figures of 0-31 off his three overs.

It might have helped if he had had something to bowl at but after Hyderabad had been inserted, it was only Heinrich Klaasen's 71 off 44 balls that saved them from a complete wipe-out after Mumbai's Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar (2-12) had done most of the early damage, reducing them to 4-13.

Head, who's endured a pretty mixed IPL season, perished on the fourth ball he faced for his first duck of the campaign - and his third single-figure total - skying one from the Kiwi Boult while trying to flay it out of the park in familiar all-or-nothing fashion.

The evergreen 35-year-old Boult also yorked Cummins later in the innings for just a single as his figures of 4-26 deservedly earned him the player-of-the-match honours.

When Mumbai went to work to pursue the modest 8-143, Sharma, who'd endured a poor start to the season, was soon back in the same mood that had seen him hammer an unbeaten 76 against Chennai three days earlier.

With three more maximums added to his collection, he became the highest six hitter for Mumbai, taking him onto a total of 259, which surpassed West Indian Kieron Pollard's franchise record of 258.

Sharma shared half-century stands with Will Jacks (22) and Suryakumar Yadav (40no off 19) before chipping a regulation catch at mid-wicket when Mumbai were just 14 runs away from victory.

"Never got going," Cummins sighed. "That's T20. When you turn up to the ground, you never know what's going to happen whatever your form is. It hasn't quite worked out for us so far unfortunately..."

Indeed, but time's running out for his side, who now effectively have to be in must-win mode each time they play, as they languish six points off the play-off pace.