Kane Williamson is no Chris Gayle, but the New Zealand captain is still one of the best batsmen in the world right now, and that showed during his first match of the ongoing Indian Premier League season on Wednesday. After warming the bench for a few games, Williamson finally got an outing at his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad’s home game against Delhi Daredevils.
The 26-year-old responded with a splendid 51-ball 89 in a 136-run second-wicket stand with Shikhar Dhawan (70 off 50), which led the hosts to 191/4 in 20 overs. The Sunrisers would end up winning by 15 runs, taking them to second in the table.
After coming in to bat one-down in the second over itself following captain David Warner’s dismissal, Williamson took his time to settle in. He ambled along to 13 off 16 balls, before flicking on the switch and carting Angelo Mathews for two back-to-back sixes.
Asked to elaborate on his approach to Twenty20 cricket in his post-match interview, Williamson told iplt20.com, “I wish I could smack a few like Chris Gayle, but unfortunately not to be. I think it is about adapting to the best of your abilities and playing around with your strong points. There are some incredible players that can whack it 120 meters. I do practice hard in the nets to hit the ball long, but probably it is not in my genetic make-up to do that. So, I try and find a different way, something similar to the knock I played tonight.”
Williamson shuffled in his crease a lot during his knock, which he admitted was a deliberate ploy against Delhi’s quick bowlers. “While you are playing, you are fortunate to get in, read the bowler and if you are able to put the bowlers under a bit of pressure, then that can help as well,” he said. “They had a lot of fast bowlers and it was something that I had in mind to get runs off them. A few of them went into the gaps and went to the boundary, which is a positive thing.”
Williamson was pleased with his start to the season after being on the bench, which he said was “part and parcel” of the tournament. “Being on the sidelines you are always practicing to be as ready as you can for your first game,” he said. “It has to do a lot with the mental shift from the other formats that we have been playing. That is the challenge – you have to be in tune with everything and be ready whenever need be.”
The New Zealander also credited Dhawan for his blitzy knock, which he said allowed him to settle into the match. “Shikhar Dhawan was superb today and the way he crafted in the middle overs and picked up the strike-rate towards the end was brilliant,” Williamson said. “Our partnership helped the team to put up a big score. We knew that there was a lot of firepower in the hut. You are trying to do the team justice by increasing the strike-rate. I think the way Shikhar played – having a higher strike-rate than me, allowed me to get in, take my time and then tee off. T20 is very fickle in its nature, so you are fortunate that some of your risks do come off.”