SUNRISERS HOLD AND KANE RCB
Jason Holder ended the night the way he started — with a hold on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. And even he himself wouldn’t have dreamt this up when he was sitting in his home, far away in the pristine Caribbean island of Barbados, with his feet up, after a gruelling Test series against England.
The West Indies Test team captain had gone unsold in the IPL auction last December but was sounded out by the Sunrisers Hyderabad after Australian Mitchell Marsh twisted his ankle.
And in a strange twist of fate, the Holder stamped his imprint in the IPL Eliminator in Abu Dhabi on Friday night.
Holder brought his all-round qualities to the fore to tower over the rest as the Sunrisers Hyderabad eked out a six-wicket win at the Zayed Cricket Stadium. After pushing the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the wall with three telling blows, it was fitting that he scored the winning runs by slicing Navdeep Saini to the point boundary.
Holder was not the lone one who shone brightly on the night. The Sunrisers Hyderabad couldn’t have asked for a better person than the cool and calm head of Kane Williamson. The New Zealand captain, who has had his fair share of disappointments, not least the World Cup final heartbreak, brought the Sunrisers Hyderabad back in line after a wobble, in a tricky chase of 132.
The bearded Kiwi wisely shepherded them with his second fifty of the season and 14th of the tournament being the cornerstone of this important victory. He and Holder stood ground after they were 67-4, with a crucial alliance of 65 for the fifth wicket, to hand-hold the Sunrisers home.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad are now on a hot streak of four wins on the bounce, including the victory against defending champions the Mumbai Indians, to ensure their play-off qualification.
The 2016 champions, also runners-up in 2018, apart from making the play-offs in 2013, 2017 and last season, now go up against the Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 at the same venue, on Sunday.
For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, it was a painful end after they had started the tournament brightly. Five defeats on the trot, sums it all up for Virat Kohli and his men. An IPL title still proves to be elusive and they will have to wait a bit more and do the grind all over again.
“We had to beat the top three to make it first, and we had to knock out three again,” Sunrisers skipper David Warner said at the postmatch presentation.
“What a masterclass from Kane, he’s done it for years for New Zealand,” the Australian added.
Warner’s opposite number Kohli said that they came up short with the runs. “We just didn’t have enough runs on the board in my opinion,” said Kohli.
Nonetheless, he said that they do have some positives to take. “A couple of people have stood up and had a good season. Devdutt (Padikkal), (Mohammed Siraj as well. Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal) and AB (de Villiers) have been solid as ever. So, there are a couple of positives. Devdutt has done it with class and efficiency, it’s not easy to get 400 runs,” he said.
Earlier, Kohli’s tweak to the combination where he promoted himself to open the batting didn’t as Holder polished off both the openers. Apart from Kohli and Padikkal, Holder accounted for Shivam Dube. Then, T Natarajan, whose wife gave birth on Friday morning, celebrated the new arrival by finishing up with two wickets, including the prized scalp of AB de Villiers.
AB stood amongst the ruins, scoring a defiant 56 from 43 deliveries with five boundaries, before, in a rare sight, T Natarajan sent his middle stump cartwheeling with a yorker.
Australian opener Aaron Finch, who came one-down, made a 30-ball 32 that had three boundaries and a six.
james@khaleejtimes.com