“The guys bowled beautifully and we caught well”: SRH Skipper Kane Williamson On Win Against RCB

Man of the match, Marco Jansen, took 3/25, claiming all three of his victims in his first over itself, the second of the innings, as he dismissed Faf du Plessis (5), Virat Kohli (0) and Anuj Rawat (0).

New Delhi: Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson was all praises for his bowlers, led by Marco Jansen, for their breathtaking performance against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The bowling power helped them bowl Royal Challengers Bangalore out for 68, their second-lowest total ever. The match was being held at Brabourne Stadium here on Saturday.

Marco Jansen landed the early blows and T Natarajan wiped off the lower-order in a brilliant display of medium pace bowling to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to a sub-100 total. Jansen took 3/25, claiming all three of his victims in his first over itself, the second of the innings, as he dismissed Faf du Plessis (5), Virat Kohli (0) and Anuj Rawat (0) as Royal Challengers were reduced to 8/3 at the end of the second over from which they never recovered.

Natarajan wiped off their lower order with 3/12 to help his team to a memorable victory that boosted their net run rate (NRR) big time and helped them to climb to the second spot on the table with 10 points behind Gujarat Titans (12). They are tied on 10 points with Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore but have a better NRR of 0.691 while Rajasthan has 0.432 and RCB 0.472.

Back to old plans

“It was one of those days really. There was a little bit in the air and the guys bowled beautifully and we caught well. For things to unfold like that, you need a bit to go your way and we got that. Obviously, we got that. It was an outstanding performance but a lot went our way. So for us, it’s about going back to our plans and looking at the next challenge,” said Williamson at the post-match presentation on Saturday.

Trying to make use of swing

He said that the conditions in the power-play were favouring the bowlers and thus saw a lot of wickets falling in that period.

“There’s a lot of strike power there and the balls are swinging this season a lot more than other seasons so we’re trying to make use of that as a side. I think we’ve seen a lot of wickets in the Powerplay, and for us to take those wickets in the Powerplay was a great start to the match,” the New Zealand captain said.

Williamson praised pacer Marco Jansen who landed the early blows to put RCB under pressure.

“Off the field, he’s always up for a laugh. He’s always very focused and very clear on what he wants to do. He clearly had an outstanding match today and he’s got the skills to do that. When the ball is swinging a little bit, and a little bit of grass on the surface, he’s a real threat for us. So it was great that he was able to get the rewards today.”

(With agency inputs)