Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner hailed the "masterclass" knock played by teammate Kane Williamson in his team's six-wicket victory in the IPL 2020 Eliminator this Friday (November 6) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
In a low-scoring fixture where RCB managed 131/7 in the first half and SRH were 67/4 in the 12th over of the chase, Williamson's superlative innings of 50* off 44 balls made the real difference.
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His fifth-wicket partnership with Jason Holder (24*) was especially commendable for the way they both batted under enormous pressure and helped SRH progress one step further in the tournament to Qualifier 2 versus Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday (November 8).
"What a masterclass from Kane, he's done it for years for New Zealand. With the class of batting line up they had, you obviously knew there was something in that wicket with the new ball holding. You had to wait for the ball to be overpitched," said Warner at the post-match presentation, as quoted by ANI.
"The spinners bowled quite slow, fantastic through the middle overs. But end of the day, when you have a guy like Kane at the end."
In the first half, SRH pulled off a collective bowling performance of the kind every team hope for on a big day. Sandeep Sharma (0/21) and Holder (3/25) dominated the proceedings with the new ball and then Shahbaz Nadeem (1/30), Rashid Khan (0/22) and T Natarajan (2/33) controlled the rest of the innings. Among RCB batsmen, only the great AB de Villiers (56) could claim to have got going at some stage.
"Last few games have taken a bit out. We had to beat the top three to make it first, and we had to knock out three again. We had to sort of change our strategy around the first six, bowl Sandy and Jase with 5 in the powerplay, hold Natarajan and Rash for the middle overs," Warner said.
"We had to work out a formula and it's going well. Congratulations to Natarajan and his wife, they had a baby this morning. What a gift for the little one," he added.
Warner also looked forward to another knock-out clash with DC in Abu Dhabi.
"Bit close for my liking. Delhi is a fantastic team, we've spoken about their world-class bowling. Shikhar is in form, Shreyas as well who is a linchpin for them," he signed off.
