IPL 2022: Kane Williamson lauds team’s collective effort after win against Gujarat Titans

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson was delighted after his team won their second match on the trot after beating Gujarat Titans by eight wickets at the Dr. DY Sports, Academy, Mumbai on Monday. Williamson lauded the team’s collective effort and believes his team came up with a much-improved performance.

Gujarat Titans were able to post a fighting score of 162 runs after Hardik Pandya scored a fifty whereas Abhinav Manohar scored 21-ball 35 after receiving three reprieves from Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a slow start but Kane Williamson and Abhishek Sharma were able to change gears in the last couple of overs of powerplay. The opening duo added 64 runs in nine overs before Sharma was dismissed after scoring 42 runs.

Williamson batted at run-a-ball for the major part of his innings however he got crucial boundaries whenever the required run rate climbed up. The SRH captain scored 57 runs off 46 balls to get his team close to the target.

However, the finishing touches were provided by Nicholas Pooran, who played a fine knock of 35 runs off 21 balls.

Kane Williamson, who was also awarded the Player of the Match for his fine batting show, said in the post-match presentation, “It was I thought a very good game of cricket. Probably it was a par total. They had a strong bowling attack. We wanted to get partnerships and we got that. The guys have been clear about the roles. There are a number of challenges. The execution was largely good. It was tough to hit through the line. Nice to get some partnerships and get across the line. Might just be cramps for Rahul and hopefully, he can recover quickly. Washington as well. Hopefully, he can recover quickly as well. It is just about guys going out there and trying to perform for the team. It was a nice improved performance today.”

On the other hand, Nicholas Pooran believes the team needs to work on their catching as Abhinav Manohar was given three lives by Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Pooran said after the game, “Didn’t have much dew at all. We as a batting group knew that we just had to learn from our mistakes in the past. We knew we had to build partnerships. It was a bit challenging, it was a bit two-paced, was sticking in the wicket a bit. We just stuck there, we had important partnerships. (Preparation) Pure hard work, I try to improve every single day that I train. Fortunately, we have some amazing coaches here who are sitting and having some amazing conversations with us. Brian is here, you can’t have better batting conversations with him, he’s helping me tremendously, not just myself but a lot of youngsters in the team. You can see the progress as a batting unit as well. The first over – it went wrong for us, but having said that, I felt that we restricted them really well. Dropped catches – that’s something we have to work on. 160-odd on that wicket was fabulous and all our bowlers did their part.”

SRH will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.