Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Kane Williamson was contented with his team’s solid 45-run win over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Hyderabad on Monday (April 29), as that victory not only boosted their playoffs chances, but also their run-rate in the IPL 2019 points table as well.
At the moment, SRH are placed at the fourth spot on the points table with 12 points from 12 games and Monday’s victory brought them an inch closer to the playoffs berth, especially with the run-rate which might turn out to be crucial for the Orange Army for qualification for the knockout stages of the IPL 2019.
Following the Hyderabad match, Williamson has rated their show against the KXIP as their best performance of the ongoing 2019 season so far, while stressing on the need to come together in the final two games to make their way to the playoffs of the IPL 2019.
Williamson told reporters at the post-match press conference in Hyderabad on Monday, “The table is pretty congested and every game that you play at the backend is equally important so it was nice to put out the performance that we did today.”
The SRH captain also heaped praise on David Warner, who once again won the match with his blistering batting for the franchise, hitting 81 off 56 balls to help the hosts to post 212/6 against KXIP.
So far in the tournament, Warner and Jonny Bairstow were the key architects of SRH’s success and Williamson has stressed on the need to put up collective efforts to win matches in the tournament in the absence of world-class duo - as two will miss the remaining part of the tournament to be with their respective national teams for the World Cup 2019 preparations.
While hailing the openers, the New Zealander added, “He (Warner) has been prolific. Him and Jonny were outstanding for us, and we have always known that they will be leaving us at some point. They are two world-class players that are hard to replace but as a team, we had been aware that it was going to happen so it is important as a collective we come together.
There will be guys with slightly different roles going into the last couple of games and they are really looking forward to those opportunities. Once again we believe for us to play our best cricket is to play as a team and it will be important for us to do that as we go into the last two games.”
On his own show with the bat in the IPL 2019 having amassed only 55 runs in his 6 outings for SRH so far, Williamson noted, “It is one of those things where you are always wanting to score more runs but at the end of the day you are just trying to contribute to the team the best you can and that has been my focus in every game that I have played.
It has been a bit disjointed in the first half but look it is still great to be a part of and although I haven't quite had those bigger performances, it is still just that mindset to go out and trying to do what the team needs to the best of your abilities. It was nice to spend a few more balls out there today.”
Now, SRH will lock horns against the Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their last two games and the Captain has insisted the collective efforts will be deciding the eventual outcome of the contests as both teams are looking strong at the moment.
Williamson signed off by saying, “Think the biggest battle is perhaps within. Both teams are going to be strong, both teams will be hard to beat but for us it about trying to put together a performance, perhaps close to what we saw today which was probably our best performance of the season so far.”
(With Cricketnext Inputs)
