WILLIAMSON HAILS SUNRISERS FIGHTING SPIRIT AFTER VICTORY

KOLKATA:Rashid Khan’s all-round brilliance handed Sunrisers Hyderabad a 14-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 at the Eden Gardens on Friday and propelled them to the final of Indian Premier League 2018 (IPL 2018) against Chennai Super Kings.

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson lavished praise on Rashid and the team’s spirit for fighting till the last ball.

“It was a great fighting effort, (the game) ebbed and flowed. Game could’ve gone either way, fell our way in crunch moments. Credit to the way the boys finished off. Was slipping away at the start, but we pulled it back nicely to get wickets. Rashid was brilliant, but he’s got another game day after,” said the New Zealand skipper.

After posting a total of 174/7, Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 160/9.

“We’ll keep him wrapped up. It was an exciting, must-win game. It feels great to go through to the final, but it is important to move on. As a team we fight till the last ball, and we showed that today. Someone like Rashid is the perfect example of that. He is an outstanding talent, but it was a team effort.

“Lot of the guys chipped in, it was a great team fighting effort which is the attitude we want to see. I mean the thing we didn’t change was our balance; Saha was injured but he came back, and it was nice to have his experience.”

SRH now face MS Dhoni’s CSK in the final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday night.

Losing skipper Dinesh Karthik lamented KKR’s performance and said the loss was tough to accept. “It’s hard to digest, we played a good tournament.”