PUNE: After the defeat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Kane Williamson said his team showed a lot of fight and added that the 'men in orange' need to stay connected for the rest of tournament.
CSK were back to winning ways in this Indian Premier League (IPL) season after registering a 13-run victory against SRH at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
Chennai were once again led by MS Dhoni after the side's new skipper Ravindra Jadeja, appointed for the job ahead of the start of the ongoing edition, stepped down from the role because of the team's poor show under his leadership.
Batting first, CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (99) and Devon Conway (85*) starred in CSK's 13-run victory after the duo stitched a match-winning partnership to take CSK to 202/2.
Chasing a daunting total, SRH could manage 189/6, credited mainly to knocks by Abhishek Sharma (39) and Kane Williamson (47) at the top, and Nicholas Pooran (64* off 33 balls) in the middle order.
At the post-match presentation, SRH skipper Kane Williamson said: "When anyone gets over 200, it'll always be a challenge chasing it down. I thought we responded well to it, but they kept us under pressure with the total they had. We did show a lot of fight and were unlucky at times with some things that didn't go our way."
"It (the pitch) was a bit slower. We did try our best, but losing Washy (Washington Sundar) for the best part of the bowling innings was a struggle for us. Still we can look back at the game with a lot of positives," he added.
"We came up against quality spinners. At the end of the day, we did show a lot of fight. We just need to stay connected. We're playing well, and did so at the first half of the tournament (talking about the five straight wins). We just need to touch on a few things, shape well and come back stronger in the next game."
