Follow UsFormer Australia and Chennai Super Kings pacer Dirk Nannes praised Kane Williamson's leadership abilities in keeping Sunrisers Hyderabad's performances consistent. Williamson's team claimed a big win over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday at the Brabourne Stadium after reducing them to 68 all out and then chased the target in 8 overs.
Their fifth on the trot also took SRH to second in the IPL 2022 table. Nannes felt that SRH are the surprise package of IPL 2022 as he pointed out their bowling department's strength which has improved with every passing game.
"There is always something to be said about the way a captain leads like Kane Williamson does, and if you win or lose, you are exactly at the same level, and that is what Williamson does on the field," Nannes said in Cricket.com's match review.
"Their bowling attack is in great form, and they have got Tripathi and Markram, who have been dominant in chases. They are not getting into their middle-order early on in the innings, so the top-order, whilst it is not plundering runs, and we can be critical about their strike rate about Williamson, he catches up. Generally speaking, this season, their top order has been doing the job," he said/
Left-arm pacer Marco Jansen was the star for SRH when he removed Faf Du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat all in the second over of the match. Nannes observed that the South African's ability to swing the ball both ways makes it extremely difficult for the batsmen to face.
"He is excellent at challenging both sides of the bat, and it is a real challenge because you don't know as a batter if the ball is going to come back in or nip away. The challenge that he brings to the top-order player is pretty exceptional, and the most important aspect is having a look at the economy rates," Nannes said.
Jansen bowled 14 dot balls in his four overs as he finished with figures of 3-25.
"He has taken a truckload of wickets, but he has been miserly in his spell. He is such a valuable person in the side, because he bowls in difficult periods of the game that probably makes those better than what we see on paper," he said.
Nannes felt that SRH bowling has come to the fore in unexpected ways which has been pivotal to their good run.
"Umran Malik’s development has been outstanding, but I would like to see him bowl under pressure because today was again a game where he can all-out attack because of the scoreboard situation," Nannes said.
"He did bowl some bad balls that did not get put away because he was bowling them to lower-order batters. Jansen has been in terrific form, and you do not expect those results out of the spinner. It is an unexpectedly good attack after we looked at the first few games and thought they would be nowhere but look what confidence can do," he added.
RCB's fragile top-order
RCB never recovered from Jansen's blow as their middle order and lower order crumbled. Nannes felt that RCB's top-order haven't been doing enough for the middle order to build on.
"It is becoming a trend for RCB, and Virat Kohli's form is horrible. I thought he will come out and make some runs this game, but that clearly did not happen, and the method he went tonight with his bat face almost invites the edge to slip," he said.
Kohli has scored 119 runs from eight matches so far, including two golden ducks in the last two matches. Nannes felt that the other top-order batters have contributed to RCB's early collapses.
"Virat's form is a problem and certainly the top-order; they are getting into the middle-order very quickly," he said.
Nannes felt that big results such as Saturday's can happen in T20s from time to time.
"I don't think we should unnecessarily overreact on these types of things because these types of results do happen in T20 cricket," Nannes said.