SRH captain Ishan Kishan lauded openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma for their match-winning 80-run powerplay stand against KKR. He said their explosive start made the game easy, paving the way for SRH's victory in the IPL clash.
Ahead of his side's win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Ishan Kishan hailed the performances of openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, saying that getting those 80-odd runs in the powerplay made things easy for the team. After a setback against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), SRH bounced back in style as an 82-run opening stand between Travis-Abhishek and a half-century from Heinrich Klaasen took SRH to 226/8, which looked pretty big for KKR despite a valiant half-century from Angkrish Raghuvanshi and knocks from Finn Allen and Rinku Singh. Jayden Unadkat (3/21) was the pick of the bowlers for SRH.
'Give credit to both the batters': Ishan Kishan
Speaking during the post-match, Ishan said, "Yeah, not at the way I played, but the way the rest of the team (happiness with performance). It is always the team, yeah. So, really happy the way they were committed on the ground and, you know, everyone was putting their energy, and that was something I asked for before the game. I was just happy to see all of them putting in their effort. I think Travis Head and Abhishek played a beautiful knock out there, and getting those all 80 runs in the powerplay made the game easy for us because I think every batter got that extra time to take singles and understand how the pitch is playing. So, to be very honest, I give credit to both the batters and Klassy taking it to the end, Nitish playing a lovely knock. So, it was overall a team effort, I feel."
Kishan lauds spinners' performance
Kishan said that during the chase, even when Finn Allen started well with 25 runs in the first over, they were looking for the wickets, and Harsh Dubey (1/17 in two overs) got his prized scalp for a seven-ball 29. "Harsh has been doing well for his domestic team as well. Now, he is keeping his nerves down, as you said. He has been calm in tough situations as well. But I would love to talk about Shivang (0/41 in four overs) today because, you know, coming here, playing against KKR, not so big ground, good wicket in the second innings, and, you know, he bowled exceptionally well, I feel. So, that is something, you know, his hard work paid off. He was working a lot. He was in touch with all the coaches. He was trying to understand how this game works here. And, you know, you can see how he was bowling with a big heart against Rinku, bowling those flighted balls. So, that is something you always want to see from a young bowler who comes in the team, and he did the job for us," he added further about performances of spinners.
Room for improvement in fielding
Kishan said that the team needs to work on their fielding. "We cannot be giving 20-odd runs in each game. So, yeah, we will have to work there because, you know, in IPL, 20 or 10 runs, it makes a huge difference in a T20 game. So, yeah, we will work on it as a team," he signed off.
Match Summary
Put to field first, SRH posted 226/8, with Heinrich Klaasen (52 in 35 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Abhishek Sharma (48 in 21 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (39 in 24 balls, with four boundaries and a six). KKR started off chasing fine with Finn Allen (28 in seven balls, with three sixes and two sixes) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (52 in 29 balls, with six fours and two sixes), but fizzled out quickly to bundle out for 161 in 16 overs. (ANI)
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