Blackcaps captain Kane Williamson has made his first appearance in this year's Indian Premier League, helping Sunrisers Hyderabad to a nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings.
Playing his first game since taking a break to undergo treatment on his elbow last month, Williamson scored an unbeaten 16, as his side easily chased down their target of 121 for the first win of their campaign.
The 30-year-old missed the Sunrisers' first three games, after earlier sitting out the Blackcaps' Twenty20 series against Bangladesh to repair a small tear in his left elbow tendon.
"It's feeling pretty good," Williamson said of his elbow afterwards. "It's nice to be out there and get my first opportunity, but mainly nice, as a team, to learn from a few mistakes in our last few games.
"For us, it's important that we keep thinking on our feet and build on today's performance."
Williamson was the only NZ player to feature on Thursday (NZ time), with Lockie Ferguson, Tim Seifert and Mitchell Santner not selected to play for their respective teams.
Khallel Ahmed did the damage with the ball for the Sunrisers, snaring 3/21, before Australian star David Warner (37) and England's Jonny Bairstow (63) put on a 73-run partnership, setting the platform for Williamson to complete a comfortable win.
The Kiwi faced the final ball, as Arshdeep Singh’s wide sealed the result, with eight balls to spare.
Sunrisers Hyderabad now sit fifth in the IPL standings.
