IPL 2018 | Kane Williamson raised the level of the game several notches, believes Sunil Gavaskar

05/07/2018

Sunil Gavaskar has been all praise for the Kane Williamson and feels that the SRH captain has raised the level of the game by many times. He went on to compare Williamson with MS Dhoni and said that the former has the same cooling effect as the Indian, which calms the nerves of the jittery players.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have brought their top game to the IPL this season. The table toppers have won 7 out of the 9 games they have played so far. Bowling has been their main weapon and they haven’t allowed teams to chase totals. However, in the match against Delhi Daredevils, they showed that they can chase too and gave a perfect performance with the bat to win the game by 6 wickets. The performances were possible thanks to some brilliant counter-attacking approach by their skipper and Gavaskar believed that Williamson is the glue that has held SRH together in the absence of their tainted talisman David Warner.

“The Sunrisers Hyderabad are in rip roaring form. They are defending small totals and then in their game against the Delhi Daredevils they showed they can win chasing too. It was not a huge target by any means for they were asked to score at a little more than eight runs per over, but the Sunrisers showed that they could play catch up too after the asking rate climbed up. Their skipper Kane Williamson is the glue that holds the team together. Last season, he didn’t play most of the games since only four overseas players can play in the eleven and their skipper David Warner was the preferred batting option,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for TOI.

Gavaskar felt that Williamson, with the added responsibility of captaincy, has increased the level of the game by many times and has shown that technically sound shots can also get runs at a faster rate. Gavaskar compared the SRH captain with MS Dhoni and stated that Williamson has been as cool as Dhoni and it has helped the other team members to remain calm as well.

“This year, with Warner not there and with the additional responsibility of captaining the team, the New Zealand captain has raised the level of the game several notches and in the process showed that a batsman does not have to be a blaster to score at a good clip and more importantly be consistent as well. The other aspect that is seen about Williamson is how cool he stays even when things seem to be unravelling for the team. In this he is quite like MS Dhoni whose cool exterior keeps the jittery team member cool too,” he wrote.

SRH have almost confirmed their place for the knockouts. However, RCB, who hasn’t had a great IPL, has to win all of their matches to qualify, after their defeat against CSK. RCB didn’t do well with the bat and posted a total of 127. The target was easily achieved by CSK with one over to go. Gavaskar felt that fielding of RCB has been below par and has let them down several times now.

“While they are pretty sure to qualify, that is not a certainty for their opponents RCB, who have to win every single game now to qualify. The poor total against their southern neighbours Chennai didn’t help for it may well come down to the net run rate and those kind of totals hurt you. Once again, their fielding let them down with simple catches being floored that allowed CSK to win with an over to spare,” he wrote.

IPL 2018 | Kane Williamson raised the level of the game several notches, believes Sunil Gavaskar

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