Twitter Reactions: Gutsy Kane Williamson and Jason Holder 'Play Bold' to eliminate RCB from IPL 2020

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have knocked Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Two of their international captains, Kane Williamson and Jason Holder took them over the line in the low-scoring thriller and their experience came to the fore for the Orange Army. RCB tried hard to defend a low total but SRH were too good with the ball as they registered their fourth win in a row.

Earlier RCB lost their new opener in skipper Virat Kohli in the second over itself after SRH invited them to bat first. Jason Holder’s short of a length delivery nipped back in sharply even as Kohli shuffled down the track only to glove the ball to wicket-keeper down the leg-side. Devdutt Padikkal also tried to force the pace and was caught at the mid-wicket off the same bowler.

At 15/2 in the fourth over, RCB had lost two of its top run-scorers and it all came down to AB de Villiers to rebuild the innings. Aaron Finch was also batting at the other end and the duo added 41 runs together. However, there was no pace to the innings and in an attempt to up the ante, Finch got out to Shahbaz Nadeem in the 11th over after scoring 32 off 30 deliveries.

Of all ways to get out, Moeen Ali then was run-out off a free-hit while it seemed as if Shivam Dube never belonged to the middle. AB de Villiers, however, somehow managed to hit some lusty blows with no support at the other end and slammed a well deserved half-century. But only a fifty from him was not going to be enough for RCB on the day and the stage was set for De Villiers in the last three overs.

Unfortunately, the lack of support from the other batsmen was playing a role in him not timing the ball as well as he would’ve liked. SRH bowlers were on their toes right through until De Villiers got a snorter of a yorker from T Natarajan which pegged back his middle stump. It was a brilliant innings of 56 runs off 44 balls from RCB’s best batsman and it was due to his knock that the team could reach 131 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs.

For SRH, it was Jason Holder who shone with the ball picking 3/25 in his four overs while Natarajan returned with the figures of 2/33.

The thrilling chase

The chase was tricky given the dry pitch on offer. Moreover, RCB’s new ball bowlers Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj bowled superbly to not give an inch to the SRH openers. Shreevats Goswami, playing his first match of the season, got out to the latter edging one to the wicketkeeper. However, Manish Pandey and Warner mixed caution with aggression to add 41 runs in five overs.

Warner was just starting to open up after a slow start and had hit two back to back fours in the sixth over off Siraj before the pacer came back to nip him out. This is when things began to change with Virat Kohli introducing the spinners into the attack. Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled with guile and accuracy not giving an inch to the opposition.

Run-scoring came down suddenly and losing Pandey and Priyam Garg made things extremely tough for SRH. At 67/4 in the 12th over and then Kane Williamson took control of the chase. He took Jason Holder by his side and manoeuvered the ball in the gaps while also churned out boundaries at the perfect time when the required run-rate went up.

It all came down to SRH needing 35 off last four overs and to everyone’s surprise, Kohli handed the ball to Shivam Dube. He did a decent job mixing his variations and conceding only seven runs. However, Williamson and Holder were smart enough to pick 10 runs in the 18th over. Siraj then did well to go for only 8 runs to leave Saini to defend nine runs in the final over.

And it was Holder who earlier did it with the ball and then again shone with the bat to score the winning runs with two consecutive fours. It turned out to be the unbeaten match-winning partnership in the end of 65 runs as two international captains brought all their experience to take SRH over the line. While Williamson remained unbeaten on 50, Holder scored a crucial 24* to book SRH’s date with Delhi Capitals in the second qualifier.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: