In India, quietly pulling the strings on one of the greatest underdog stories in the Indian Premier League is none other than Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson.
Williamson has led his Sunrisers Hyderabad side on a five-game winning streak, taking them up to second on the table, a remarkable feat given the dearth of talent at his disposal.
Just a few months ago after the completion of the IPL auction, the franchise appeared to be in disarray.
Former Australian cricketer Simon Katich resigned from his position as Sunrisers assistant coach, citing poor purchases and puzzling decisions throughout the auction.
Sunrisers had entered the mega auction with many already questioning their decision-making. Over the offseason, each side was given the opportunity to retain up to four players from its existing squad.
While other franchises kept the likes of Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, Sunrisers chose to just keep captain Kane Williamson, young batsman Abdul Samad and promising quick Umran Malik, deciding to let the likes of David Warner, Rashid Khan and Jonny Bairstow walk out the door.
Although risky, keeping unestablished, cheaper Indian players allowed Sunrisers to enter the auction with the most money remaining under their salary cap (IND68 crore, around NZ$13.4 million)
But eyebrows were raised when Sunrisers splurged IND10.75 crore (approx NZ$2 million) on West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran, given his horrendous 2021 campaign where he averaged just 7.72 from 11 innings, including an IPL-record four ducks.
They spent another IND6.5 crore (approximately NZ$1.2 million) to retain young Indian batsman Abhishek Sharma, who averaged only 16 in the 2021 campaign, while around IND12 crore (NZ$2.36 million) was spent on unproven overseas players Marco Jansen and Romario Shepherd.
Sunrisers rounded out their side with second-tier Indian talent including Washington Sundar, Rahul Tripathi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan, and purchasing lesser-known overseas players Aiden Markram, Sean Abbott and Glenn Phillips.
On paper, Sunrisers had somehow managed to botch the auction so badly as to create arguably the worst side in IPL history.
Everyone wrote off Sunrisers before the season started, and those assumptions looked to be correct as the Hyderabad side were torn apart in the opening two games by Rajasthan and Lucknow.
But Sunrisers bounced back against Chennai and have since gone on a five-game winning streak to move to second on the table halfway through the group stage.
It is one of the greatest underdog stories in the competition’s history, given the absence of top-tier talent available to Sunrisers compared to the nine other franchises.
Leading from the front is Williamson, whose captaincy and experience has proved vital in his side’s ascendancy.
For example, in Sunrisers’ crushing victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday, Williamson put not only one, but two slips in when he threw Jansen the ball for the second over.
It paid off as Kohli was dismissed for a golden duck, wafting his bat outside off to give Markram an easy catch at second slip, before Anuj Rawat did the same on the final ball of the over.
All of a sudden RCB were 8/3 from two overs and were never able to find their way back into the contest, crumbling to 68 all out. Sunrisers cruised home to win by nine wickets.
While Williamson himself has taken more of a backseat role with the bat, he has helped give others the chance to succeed by batting around him.
Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi have been impressive alongside Williamson at the top of the order, while Markram and Pooran have silenced critics and developed into one of the competition’s best middle-order duos.
Markram has only been dismissed once in five innings, scoring 190 runs at a strike rate of 150, while Tripathi has scored 212 runs at an average of 53 and an impressive strike rate of 175.
With the ball, Sunrisers have been led by their homegrown contingent of Natarajan, Malik and Kumar. The trio have taken 34 wickets between them at an average of 18 and an economy of 7.8.
It helps Williamson that Sunrisers are built around their pace contingent, more so than any other side in the competition.
Sunrisers have used pace bowlers 79% of the time this season, a stark contrast to the likes of Delhi Capitals who have used pace just 55% of the time.
The tactic has worked wonders for Sunrisers, with the pitches in Mumbai and Pune offering plenty for the fast bowlers.
Sunrisers’ focus on pace also benefits Williamson, who is used to directing a strong Black Caps pace attack in international cricket.
Sunrisers’ next game is a top-of-the-table clash with Lockie Ferguson’s Gujarat Titans on Wednesday (Thursday morning NZT) and could define their season.
A victory would propel them to the top of the table, while a loss would leave them scrapping with several others to make the playoffs.
“There were a lot of contributions today and through the first half of our season so far,” Williamson said after the rout of RCB.
“We know we’ve got a lot of challenges ahead and it’s important we focus on those and focus on our style of cricket.”
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