Kane Williamson has begun his new IPL season as the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad in style, picking up a nine-wicket win with ease over the Rajasthan Royals overnight.
Williamson's men made light work of Rajasthan's line up after the Black Caps captain won the toss and elected to bowl, dismissing the Royals, featuring international stars D'Arcy Short and Ben Stokes, for 125.
Short only contributed four runs to his team's efforts before he was run out by Williamson.
Sunrisers' innings didn't get off to a great start either though, with opener Wriddhiman Saha dismissed for just five runs before Williamson came out.
But from there it was smooth sailing with Williamson playing a supporting role to Hyderabad's other opener Shikhar Dhawan who went on to score an unbeaten 77 runs off 57 balls.
Williamson added 36 of his own, including a massive six early in his innings.
The Kiwi batsman took over captaincy of the IPL side after former teammate and disgraced Australian David Warner was stood down from filling the role himself due to his 12-month ban for ball tampering while playing for Australia last month.
But Warner was still watching, even sending a good luck message before the match.
The win puts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the top of the table on net run rate.
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