Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Kane Williamson said his side did not come out with their best performance in the Eliminator of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and that's why Delhi Capitals deserved to win.
Sunrisers had to face a heart-wrenching two-wicket defeat in the knockout game at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.
After setting up a competitive 163-run target, SRH failed to capture key moments during the course of the game and eventually bowed out of the competition.
After the match, Williamson felt the total of 162 was adequate. "It was one of those surfaces that produces such close matches. I believed we had a competitive total after the first half. I knew it would be a tricky chase after the powerplay overs as with such totals there are small margins."
"We have been in a position of strength before and haven't nailed it, today was another such day and that's a little bit frustrating," he added.
It was Prithvi Shaw who set up the chase for Delhi with 56 off 38 at the top of the order, before Rishabh Pant blasted 49 off 21 to take them to the brink of victory. However, there were hiccups during the run chase towards the end as the Shreyas Iyer-led side lost a flurry of wickets before Keemo Paul pulled Khaleel Ahmed for the winning boundary off the penultimate delivery.
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"Delhi played very well, they are a strong outfit and I think they deserved this win and I think they will go all the way," said Williamson.
"We believed it was a winning total and it looked like it for a long time, they started well and had all the momentum, they had some quality players, as expected on this wicket we squeezed them back and got ourselves ahead, we weren't very clinical with the catching or in our bowling, we weren't great today. It wasn't our best performance, a few things needed to be changed and it could have been a winning total," he added.
The Kiwi further said the team was building and hoped the players would continue to grow and come out with a better performance in the next season.
"We are building well as a franchise and the development process will have to continue," he signed off.
--IANS
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