IPL 2022: Williamson credits bowlers, fielders for big win over RCB

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Mumbai, April 23 (MondayMirror.com) Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson credited his bowlers for their stupendous performance that helped them bowl Royal Challengers Bangalore out for 68 in the nine-wicket win in Match 36 of the IPL 2022 at the 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 have 0.432 and RCB 0.472.

“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.

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.”

The 31-year-old skipper said that improving the net run rate is a big boost for them as things are going to get challenging later in the tournament.

“Obviously you want to win every game and that’s the first goal, and then you want to try to do it as well as you can and it was great we were able to do that today.

“There were a lot of contributions today and throughout the first half of the season so far but we know we have a lot of challenges coming up,” said Williamson.

Source: IANS