Kane Williamson is responsible for losses: SRH captain roasted by fans after big loss vs KKR in IPL 2022

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Kolkata Knight Riders handed a big loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 61 of IPL 2022 on Saturday (May 14) at the MCA, Pune. 

Among the poor performers for Hyderabad was their captain Kane Williamson. 

Williamson scored just 9 off 17 balls, continuing his poor show in the tournament. And he was very poor as captain as well. Kane forgot to keep a pacer for the last over and threw the ball to off-spinner Washington Sundar when Andre Russell was on strike. Russell smashed 20 off that over and took the total to 177/6 in 20 overs. 

With this loss, SRH have now lost 5 matches on the trot. They had started the season with 3 back-to-back losses but resurrected the campaign with 5 consecutive wins. However, their playoff hopes are getting thinner by every game now. 

SRH fans roasted Williamson for his poor show in the game and the tournament. Check reactions below:

Kabhi toh khel lia kr Kane Williamson _#IPL2022 — 3rd Umpire (@drsoperator) May 14, 2022

Kane Williamson won all the matches for opponents — kashyap (@KashyapSuraaj) May 14, 2022

Thanks to Kane Williamson who batted so well and made such good captaincy decisions like bowling a spinner in 20th over. — Arun (@ManUtdSZN) May 14, 2022

These are my questions to @SunRisers

1. Exactly what is the role for Kane Williamson?
2. Is Brian Lara coaching the batsmen?
3. Do you realize your middle oder batsmen are worse than the other teams?
4. Who is selecting the team?#IPL2022 #SRH — Rakeeb Noordeen (@RkbSaji) May 14, 2022

@SunRisers Kane Williamson should be responsible for the losses.

Does he feel accountability for losses.

Really in search for Williamson, you lost David Warner. — Akshay_Official __ (@ImAkshaychary) May 14, 2022

Match report

It was Russell's unbeaten 49 off 28 balls that took KKR to 177 for six in 20 overs after being down and out at 94 for 5.

In reply, SRH were never in the hunt as they huffed and puffed their way to 123 for 8 against a collective bowling effort from Shreyas Iyer's men with the flamboyant Jamaican finishing with best figures of 3 for 22.

Umesh Yadav (1/19 in 4 overs), Tim Southee (2/23 in 4 overs), Varun Chakravarthy (1/25 in 4 overs) and Sunil Narine (1/34 in 4 overs) -- all stuck to their respective game plans with near-perfect executions over after over.

6_th victory of the #TATAIPL 2022 for @KKRiders! _ _

The @ShreyasIyer15-led unit register their second win on the bounce as they beat #SRH by 54 runs to bag 2_ more points. _ _ #KKRvSRH

Scorecard _ https://t.co/BGgtxVmUNl pic.twitter.com/A98elu6lIK — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 14, 2022

KKR now have 12 points from 13 games with a net run-rate of +0.160 and moved to sixth place.

With Rajasthan Royals (14 from 12) and RCB (14 from 13 games) having chance to move up, even a victory is unlikely to be enough for Shah Rukh Khan owned franchise which played its 13th 'first XI' combination in as many games. For Sunrisers, 10 points from 12 games with a dismal NRR of -0.270 means that even two big wins and 14 points might not be enough after five straight defeats.

While he is a sentimental favourite among Indian cricket lovers, a lot of SRH's poor batting show could be attributed to skipper Kane Williamson's nightmarish season that has yielded only 208 runs in 12 games at an average of less than 19 and a strike-rate of 92.85. Williamson (9 off 17 balls) has been SRH's weakest link this season and his failure at the top of the order has been one of the biggest reasons for their slump.

It was an ordeal for Williamson till Russell bowled one on the stumps to end his misery. Rahul Tripathi (9 off 1 balls) also looked scratchy even as Abhishek Sharma (43 off 28 balls) attacked Sunil Narine, hitting him for two sixes.

It was Tim Southee's brilliant reflex return catch that ended Tripathi's innings. At the halfway stage, SRH weren't in a very comfortable position at 66 for two and even the statistic of teams chasing (highest successful chase of 170) at the Gahunje Stadium didn't paint an altogether rosy picture.

Once Abhishek was dismissed by Varun Chakaravarthy (1/25) and Narine took a fine return catch to dismiss SRH's big hope Nicholas Pooran (2), there wasn't much resistance from the rest of the batters. Earlier, Umran Malik was back in his groove after a few forgettable outings as he ran through KKR's top-order but Russell along with Sam Billings (34 off 29 balls) added 63 runs for the sixth wicket to give the total a semblance of respectability after KKR were in trouble at 94 for 5. KKR added 58 runs in the last five overs, mainly due to Russell as he hit three sixes off three full-tosses bowled by off-break bowler Washington Sundar (0/40 in 4 overs). 

With PTI inputs