New Delhi, November 09, 2020: The Qualifier 2 game played between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi had its share of bold moves taken by the respective camps in order to get the impetus at the top of the order. DC decided to open the innings with the explosive all-rounder Marcus Stoinis. Meanwhile, in pursuit of a substantial target of 190, SRH took the decision to promote Priyam Garg to face the new ball.
In his brief stay at the crease, Garg did show glimpses of his potential by hooking DC’s pacer Anrich Nortje before falling to Stoinis. Kane Williamson, who composed a fluent 45-ball 67, said that Garg has great potential and they decided to give him an opportunity to bat at the top of the order. “He has got a huge amount of talent (Garg) but perhaps throughout the season, hadn’t got repeated opportunities,” Williamson said in the press conference. “Every time you watch him play in the nets, you can see how well he hits the ball. He showed that again tonight where he hit some beautiful shots. He is a really exciting young player that is for sure.”
It wasn’t just Garg who showcased glimpses of his potential but the 19-year-old Abdul Samad also made an impact with a 16-ball 33. Williamson, who stitched a crucial stand of 57 with Samad, praised the youngster and said that his innings helped SRH to get back into the game. “It was just trying to establish a partnership, trying to take the game to a stage where we can change the pressure a little bit.
“For a long period of time in the second innings, they were on top of us, and then Abdul Samad, another young talented player, came out and hit the ball beautifully, allowed us to get back into the game. Even though we had some work to do. Really good signs. Interesting season where there was a mixture of experience and young players, who had a number of opportunities which is really good for them.”
Despite Williamson’s best efforts, SRH slipped to a 17-run defeat. One of the main reasons for their loss was DC picked up the wicket of SRH’s mainstay David Warner, alongside the scalps of Garg and Manish Pandey in the first five overs of the innings. “They (DC) are a very good side, they have been trying to find the rhythm to their play, little bit like we were when we managed to for a period of time.
“Tonight they put it together and played really well, put on a very competitive total on the board, which going into the second innings risks needed to be taken. And unfortunately we didn’t get the best of starts. But we managed to build partnerships through the little period. Real shame to not kick on in the tournament. But I think the last three weeks, the guys would be pretty proud of the way they played,” he added.
SRH had a roller-coaster journey where they came from behind to qualify for the playoffs. In fact, SRH won four games in a row to progress to the next round. Williamson noted that the SRH set-up took a bit of time to find the rhythm, especially in the backdrop of players coming out of the lockdown. He also commended youngsters like Samad and Natarajan for filling the roles of some of the senior players who were injured through the course of the tournament according to the reports published in cricbuzz.com.
“Season of fine lines I think. We had a number of very close losses. We perhaps weren’t playing at our best. I think every team is very strong, everybody has beaten everybody, you have to be on top of your game. As a team we were looking for that rhythm to our play as a collective and perhaps took a little bit of time. A lot of teams were in a similar boat and it was nice that we were able to find it at a crunch time and win sort of four or five in a row which gave us an opportunity. But like I said we would have liked to have gone through.
“Number of players you mentioned – Priyam, Samad, Abhishek and Natarajan, who really burst on the scene with his death bowling, he has been exceptional. Especially with the number of injuries we had in this campaign, with the likes of Bhuvi who is our senior bowler and also Wriddhiman Saha. It was an interesting time, coming out of the lockdown; a lot of teams found the niggles and the little injuries a challenge to deal with. The way the guys came in and filled the roles was really good.”
