IPL 2021: “Plan to Kane Williamson was not to give him pace to play his shots” - Axar Patel
Delhi Capitals (DC)'s left-arm spinner Axar Patel has said that DC looked to bowl slow against Kane Williamson, keeping the Chennai pitch and conditions in mind.
Kane Williamson scored an unbeaten 66 off 51 balls for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to take the match against DC to a Super Over. Patel's brilliance in the Super Over, in which he conceded only seven, eventually made the difference as Kane Williamson's excellent innings went in vain.
At a virtual press conference following DC’s victory, Axar Patel opened up on the tactics the team decided to implement to try and keep Kane Williamson quiet. The left-arm spinner said in this regard:
“Everyone knows that when Kane Williamson comes into bat, he takes his time to settle in. And the ball was coming slowly off the pitch, so the plan was to not give him pace to play his shots. But it is also true that Kane Williamson is very good in stepping out and hitting the slow bowlers over the top. So while bowling slow, we also made a conscious effort not to give him too much flight and decided to bowl with a flatter trajectory. The other thing was to bowl stump-to-stump. The pitch was doing a lot, so I felt we didn't have to experiment too much. We bowled normal lengths and let the batsmen make the adjustments.”
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I am tired of coming second in Super Overs: Kane Williamson
The heartbreak on Sunday was the latest in a growing list of Super Over losses for New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, the biggest of them all coming in the 2019 World Cup final.
While talking about his mounting frustration in losing Super Over matches, Williamson said that SRH can take a lot of positives from their defeat against DC. He elaborated:
“I get tired of coming second in the Super Overs. But I think, as a batting side, chasing a score that was very competitive and taking it to the Super Over, there are a lot of positives to take out of it. Very uncanny that, in a game of cricket, things can end up in a tie. But I suppose, that’s why it is very exciting. It was a great game to watch as well, I am sure. Important that we move on really quickly to Delhi with a new focus.”
SRH’s next match will be against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Delhi on April 28.