IPL 2019 | The way Watson batted, nothing could be done, says Bhuvneshwar Kumar
IPL
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has stated that given the dominating batting by Shane Watson, there was not much the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers could do. The Chennai Super Kings batsman was dismissed at 96, 17 runs away from the target, but the damage had been done before he departed towards the dressing room.
The Chennai Super Kings had put Sunrisers Hyderabad to bat in Tuesday’s encounter. Going by the slow nature of the Chepauk pitch, the game was expected to be a low scoring affair. But a 57 run innings from David Warner and Manish Pandey’s 83 off 49 in the Chennai heat took SRH’s total to 175. CSK started poorly as they were at eight for one in three overs, and Shane Watson had only scored three off his first nine deliveries. But after that, the 37-year-old did not look back and went on to score 96 off 53 deliveries. CSK won the game despite his dismissal in the 18th over, and the SRH skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar was all praise for the the Man of the Match.
"It was a par score on that wicket. There was dew on the ground but that didn't really bother us. The way Watson batted, we couldn't really do much. The credit goes to Watson," he said, at the post-match presentation ceremony, reported PTI.
The Hyderabad based franchise have relied heavily on their opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow. With the World Cup round the corner, the southpaw is expected to leave soon whereas the game against CSK was Bairstow’s final game in this edition of the cash rich league. Although the wicket-keeper batsman did not affect the score board in his final game, he has been the second highest run scorer of the tournament with 445 runs in 10 matches, only bettered by his opening partner. The England player’s departure serves as a big blow for the side, but the skipper was confident of the replacement, who is probably expected to be Wriddhiman Saha.
"We will obviously miss Bairstow, but we have players in the squad who can replace him," said the 29-year-old.
The Sunrisers are currently placed at the fourth spot on the points table, with five wins in ten games. Among the teams who have played the same number of matches, the Kings XI Punjab have equal number of wins, the Mumbai Indians have won six, whereas the Kolkata Knight Riders have won four. This presents a tight contest for the playoffs berth and the skipper suggested the side to give their best in order to come out on top in their next encounter against the seventh placed Rajasthan Royals on April 27.
"We have three away games now out of four and we have to win those games to qualify. We have to be at our best to defeat RR," Kumar signed off.
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