On Saturday (4th May) night, the Caribbean youngster Shimron Hetmyer played an impressive innings of 75 runs that helped his team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to claim a victory in their last match of IPL 2019.
RCB played this match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Bengaluru only for pride as they had no chance to qualify for the IPL 2019 playoffs. After winning the toss, RCB captain Virat Kohli decided to bowl first. With the help of captain Kane Williamson‘s unbeaten 70 runs off 43 balls, SRH managed to score 175/7 (20 overs) in the first innings.
Chasing down that target, RCB lost their top three wickets on just 20 runs (2.5 overs). While the opener Parthiv Patel (0) failed to open his account, another opener Virat Kohli scored 16 runs. After their quick dismissals, the no.3 batsman AB de Villiers (1) also returned to the pavilion cheaply.
From that dangerous position, Shimron Hetmyer and Gurkeerat Singh played some crucial innings to secure a brilliant victory. They had an incredible 144-run partnership for the fourth wicket which took the side very close to the victory.
Hetmyer scored 75 runs off 47 balls while Gurkeerat scored 65 runs off 48 balls. Though both of them lost their wickets just before the successful chase, RCB reached the target in 19.2 overs after losing six wickets (178/6). Hetmyer won the Player of the Match award for his incredible batting performance in this match.
Getting used to the environment, getting used to the IPL was tough for me – Shimron Hetmyer
Playing his first IPL season, Hetmyer had a very poor start in IPL 2019. He was included in all the first four matches of this season where he scored 0, 5, 9 and 1 respectively. Then the team management dropped him from the playing XI. The latest match was his first match since his first omission from the RCB playing XI.
Talking about his performances in this IPL season, Hetmyer pointed out that he took some time to adjust to the new environment.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Hetmyer told, “This time was a little bit tough for me. Getting used to the environment, getting used to the IPL was tough for me. I just had a word with the team management and they said have some fun. I just tried to clear my mind as much as possible and wanted to execute my plans.”
After playing five matches in this IPL season, Hetmyer scored 90 runs with an average of 18.00.
I have learned a lot from Virat and ABD – Shimron Hetmyer
The 22-year-old Hetmyer is happy with his maiden IPL experiences. He also said that he learned a lot from AB de Villiers, the skipper Kohli and the coaches. The youngster also praised the Bangalore franchise.
Hetmyer added, “The experience of IPL has been fantastic. I have learned a lot from Virat and ABD and even the coaches. RCB are a fantastic side and a fantastic franchise. I am just trying to take my game one step at a time and just try to move up in whatever way I can.”
Meanwhile, RCB finished this IPL season after earning 11 points in 14 matches (won five matches, lost eight matches and one had no result). In the initial stage of this season, RCB lost all their first six matches.