Kane Williamson has been doing everything to near perfection — as a leader and the lead scorer for his team in this Vivo IPL.
When Sunrisers Hyderabad, with nothing to lose having already made it to the play-offs, takes on Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in the night game here on Saturday, the focus for the home team captain Williamson will be on the bowlers getting back the confidence after indifferent performances in the last two games.
Once Delhi’s young guns Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer hammered them all over the park, other teams gained in confidence and importantly got the belief that Sunrisers bowlers can be handled with ease.
Leggie Rashid Khan was an exception even when A.B. de Villiers and Moeen Ali were treating the others with contempt to return with an impressive spell of 4-0-27-3. He has thus far bowled 125 dot balls, three behind the leader and pace bowler Umesh Yadav. With left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan, Rashid forms one of the best spin combinations in this IPL.
On a familiar pitch where even a 160-plus score should be defendable, the onus will be on the pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, rested for the previous game and in in all probability likely to replace Basil Thampi, Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma to serve a reminder that the most recent performances were just an aberration.
On the other hand, it is imperative in this must-win game for KKR, with 14 points from 13 matches, that the big guns like openers Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn, No. 3 Robin Uthappa fire and ensure the right kind of cushion for the likes Nitish Rana, the ever-reliable and innovative Karthik, the big-hitting Andre Russel to come to the party in this big game.
