With Two World Class Leg-Spinners It Was Never Going To Be Easy: Kane Williamson

SunRisers Hyderabad batsman Kane Williamson grabbed the spotlight as he saw his side home in a tricky chase against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Eliminator in Abu Dhabi. Kane Williamson scored an unbeaten 50 off 44 deliveries, sharing a partnership of 65 with Jason Holder to gun down 132 with two balls to spare. The Kiwi skipper underlined that facing Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa was a massive challenge.

After electing to field first, SunRisers Hyderabad had Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal back in the pavilion within the powerplay. AB De Villiers was the one who held the innings together for the Royal Challengers with a knock of 56 off 43 deliveries as he had no support from the other end. SunRisers’ bowlers were not only spot on with their fielding but also their fielding. Jason Holder picked up figures of 4-0-25-3.

SunRisers Hyderabad also found themselves in a spot of bother after a reasonably good start by Manish Pandey and David Warner. The spin duo of Zampa and Chahal shared a couple of wickets and gave away only 46 runs in four overs, hardly giving any boundary balls. Kane Williamson conjured the sixes and fours out of nothing as Jason Holder maintained his calm from the other to drive the SunRisers over the line.

“We had to try and get through their spells” : Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson conceded it was a challenging run-chase even though they bowled well to restrict them to 131. The 29-year old highly praised Chahal and Zampa for barely giving them anything; however, he felt good not to gift them too many wickets. Furthermore, Williamson termed batting at number four tricky and labelled Holder cooler than, feeling delighted to put a defining partnership together.

“It was a tough game. It was always gonna be against a class side like RCB. With the quality of their batting, restricting them to 132 said 1) we bowled well, 2) it wasn’t going to be easy. It was a challenge to restrict them. We had time, but with two world class legspinners it was never going to be easy. We had to try and get through their spells and they didn’t give us much at all. It was just nice that we could get through their overs without losing too many wickets. You try and do your role as well as you can. Batting at 4, it can vary a lot, and surface dependent. It was nice to spend time and make a contribution, put some partnerships together. It’s been an interesting last two weeks for us. [Holder] is cooler than me! He’s playing beautifully,” Kane Williamson told in the post-match presentation.

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