Kane Williamson
Kane Williamson (Credits: Twitter)

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson has left the the franchise’s bio-bubble to fly back to New Zealand for the birth of his child. The Hyderabad-based franchise confirmed the development on Wednesday (May 18). The announcement came few hours after Williamson led SRH to a win in the must-win clash against Mumbai Indians. The latest turn of events mean SRH will be without the services of the New Zealand superstar for the remainder of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2022.

Confirming the news of Williamson’s departure, SRH tweeted: “Our skipper Kane Williamson is flying back to New Zealand, to usher in the latest addition to his family. Here’s everyone at the #Riser camp wishing Kane Williamson and his wife a safe delivery and a lot of happiness!”

On Tuesday, SRH beat Mumbai Indians by 3 runs in a thrilling encounter at the Wankhede Stadium. Asked to bat first, the 2016 champions put up a huge total of 193 for 6 in their allotted 20 overs. Rahul Tripathi once again starred with the bat and slammed 76 off 44 balls with the help of 9 fours and 3 sixes. Priyam Garg (42) and Nicholas Pooran (38) also played handy knocks. In reply, Mumbai Indians put up a good fight with the bat but fell 3 run short.

The five-time champions finished their innings on 190 for 7. Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan gave Mumbai a flying start by adding 95 runs for the first wicket. From thereon, Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals before Tim David (46 off 18) played a quickfire knock to put his team in contention. However, he was run out in the 18th over before Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a maiden over to crush Mumbai’s chances.

Kane Williamson
Kane Williamson (SPORTZPICS/Instagram)

SRH are still alive in the competition but their chances are very slim. At present, they are in the eighth spot in the points table with 6 wins from 13 games. Even if they win their last game, they will have to depend on other results. Talking about Williamson’s performance this season, the right-handed batsman has looked like a pale shadow of his usual self. In 13 games, he has scored 216 runs at a modest average of 19.64 and a very poor strike-rate of 93.51.