Picture Credit: Instagram
New Zealand and Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson became a father for the second time as he and wife Sarah Raheem were blessed with a baby boy. Williamson left the ongoing 2022 season of the Indian Premier League midway last week. The 31-year-old posted a picture of the newborn on his Instagram account with the caption, “Welcome to the whānau little man!”
The couple had their one-year-old daughter, Maggie in December 2020. Similarly, like this time, Williamson took a break and travelled back home and was with his wife at the time of delivery. Addressing this news, several members of the cricketing fraternity congratulated Williamson.
Former India and Chennai Super Kings player Suresh Raina commented, “congratulations brother❤️?”. Afghanistan and Gujarat Titans player Rashid Khan wrote, “Congratulations Kane Mama ??,” while Williamson’s Kiwi teammate Ajaz Patel posted, “Mashallah bro! May the whole family be showered with loads more happiness and blessings!”
Without Kane Williamson, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost their final game of the season against the Punjab Kings by five wickets. Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar led the team against Punjab where he bowled two overs and conceded 22 runs without taking any wickets.
While addressing the team’s season in the post-match interview, Bhuvi expressed disappointment of not making to the playoffs while praising youngsters like Abhishek Sharma and Umran Malik who had a breakout season.
Kumar said, “Good feeling (on being the captain), but it would have been better if we had won the match. I think we were a lot of runs short (with them winning with 5 overs left), but we had to field better, didn't take our chances and there were fumbles, but this was the last match of the season and that does have an effect. We won 5 on the bounce and had the momentum, but it didn't go our way and we pretty much lost all our matches in the second half of the tournament. “
“We will have to look at our squad and the management will have to work out on the weaknesses ahead of the next season. Have had many positives, Umran Malik and Abhishek Sharma were the obvious positives, but we have a decent core of batting with Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran coming up pretty well. As for me, it was a challenging season with injuries hampering me, thought I did a decent job and will look to come back better in the next season”, he further added.