Kane Williamson and Jason Holder played brilliantly to take Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) out of trouble and guide SRH to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a low-scoring Eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in Abu Dhabi on Friday (November 6).
The class of Williamson was on full display on Friday, as the New Zealand captain smashed an unbeaten half-century under tremendous pressure followed by Holder’s cameo with the bat (24 not out) to power SRH to a nail-biting six-wicket victory against RCB.
Earlier in the game, Holder's excellent new-ball burst set the tone for the SRH in Abu Dhabi by removing RCB skipper Virat Kohli in his first over and Devdutt Padikkal in his next, and then Shivam Dube to finish with figures of 3-25, while T Natarajan took 2 wickets as RCB were restricted to 131-7.
Defending a 132-run target, SRH lost the injured Wriddhiman Saha’s replacement Shreevats Goswami in the very first over and then David Warner in the 6th over followed by Manish Pandey and Priyam Garg in the 9th and 12th overs to be in a fragile situation at 67/4.
But then, Williamson came and rescued the side by playing a gutsy knock of 50* off 44 balls and joined up by Holder (24*) as the duo added a 65-run stand for the fifth wicket to help SRH chase down the tricky target with two balls to spare against RCB in Abu Dhabi.
After guiding the team to a thrilling win, Man of the Match Williamson lauded Holder for his all-round contribution while saying the West Indian is “cooler than him” and arguably the coolest man in contemporary cricket at the moment.
Williamson said the post-match presentation, “A few shots from Jason helped. The guys have been fighting hard. He is cooler than me! He's playing beautifully.”
Reflecting back at the tough game against RCB, Williamson pointed out, “It was a tough game. It was always going to be so against a class side like RCB. With the quality of their batting, restricting them to 131. It was never going to be easy against a class side like RCB.”
The Kiwi further explained, “The surface was a little tricky, and chasing anything on it wasn't easy. It was a challenge for us to restrict them to that kind of total. We had time, but with two world-class leg-spinners, 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.”
He signed off by saying, “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.”
