The Sunrisers Hyderabad captain refused to blame his bowlers for the loss against Chennai Super Kings, and instead suggested his side may have been 15-20 runs short
Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai22-May-20182:24
It was a 160 wicket, we were short – Williamson
Even if Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not been completely fit this tournament, he is the leader of the Sunrisers Hyderabad pace attack. Siddarth Kaul, meanwhile, has been their leading wicket-taker and arguably their best quick bowler this season, and he showed it when he bowled Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu off consecutive deliveries on Tuesday.So when Sunrisers had to defend 22 off two overs, who did Kane Williamson pick to bowl the 19th and who did he save for the end?”In terms of choosing between those two, they are both very good operators,” Kane Williamson said in his post-match press conference. “Siddarth in his over before executed beautifully so we wanted to keep that rhythm going. And, you know, a few near-misses and a little bit of fortune, a few edges and that’s sort of the way it goes. But once again, in terms of our view and a number of areas that we want to touch upon because we would like to have got a few more runs on the board.”Before this match, Kaul had bowled the 19th over three times while defending totals and Bhuvneshwar twice. And both did equally well: Kaul’s three overs only went for 21, and Bhuvneshwar’s two for 13.On Tuesday, Kaul’s 17th over only went for four runs, including a leg bye, leaving Chennai Super Kings needing 43 off 18 balls. Faf du Plessis was batting on 41, but his team only had three wickets in hand. Williamson wanted to keep Kaul and Bhuvneshwar for the last two, so for the 18th over he had to choose between Sandeep Sharma (3-0-30-2), Shakib Al Hasan (2-0-20-0) and Carlos Brathwaite, who had conceded only 11 runs in his first two overs but was playing only his second match of the season.Williamson went with Brathwaite, who went for 20 with du Plessis carting him for three fours and a six.BCCI
“Yeah, certainly we backed Carlos with his death bowling,” Williamson said. “That’s why he’s in this side, as another death option. Unfortunately, that’s the game we play that when you’re under pressure sometimes life gets a little bit tough and credit to the way Faf batted, he batted beautifully.”To be fair, that’s not what I look at in terms of where we wanted to correct ourselves. I think with the bat, we could have taken some better options in order to get maybe another 15-20 on that surface. Couple of things didn’t go our way, but that’s the nature of the sport. We’re moving on from that, but I think we could’ve taken a few smarter options to get a bit more on the board.”But the way we fought back with the ball in hand, it’s obviously very tough to swallow because we certainly back our death bowling to close games out from that point. We have been on the right side of a number of those results throughout this league and today wasn’t to be.”When asked why didn’t go with the more experienced Shakib, Williamson said: “In terms of spinners on that surface, you are always weighing up I guess who to go with and for us we have such good seam death bowlers so we always back those guys. So it’s a balance but you just weigh it up on the right surface. If it stops and turns then sometimes that spin option is nice to have. It was offering a little bit for the spin, but they had to bowl well to get it out of it so we were backing our seamers.”I think the bowlers were outstanding today. A few balls here and there, in the death I think, when it’s a low-scoring game, a couple of edges… you know, it’s such a fine line. It was just a shame. We always backed ourselves to close games out from that point, but saying that there’s a number of other areas that we would like to touch on going into our next game.”Death bowling for us is a strength, but today CSK played well and showed their depth with the bat. Obviously, [Shardul] Thakur coming in and he can obviously hit the ball a bit as well and proved to be effective. So… frustrating, but we’re off to Kolkata and it’s important we show some signs of improvement there.”The edges that turned the match further in CSK’s favour came at the beginning of the 19th over when they needed 23 from 12. Thakur edged Kaul’s first two balls for four, either side of the keeper, taking away a lot of weight off du Plessis’ shoulders. While praising du Plessis for his innings – he may have sat out the game had Sam Billings been fit – CSK coach Stephen Fleming also acknowledged the luck his side enjoyed.”Yeah, that’s a good point and I can’t [explain how we keep pulling such wins off],” Fleming said. “The game obviously has its ups and downs and turns but we have had a season where we have won from unwinnable positions. Today was one of those, it seems.”It’s been individual players who have got us out of trouble and different players all the time. Of course, MS [Dhoni] is a usual culprit. The player today who hasn’t played that much came out on a bigger stage of the tournament today and for Faf to do that is testament to his skillset and his mindset as well. Sometimes dumb luck: you just pick the guys at the right time and they just play and innings for the team that means so much and we saw one of those today.”
