David Warner drubbed 81 off 56 deliveries to give himself a fitting farewell and helped Sunrisers Hyderabad inch closer to a playoff spot with a 45-run win over Kings XI Punjab at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday (April 29).
Courtesy of a superior Net Run Rate, Hyderabad now just need to win one of their remaining two games to confirm their place in the playoffs, Meanwhile, even if Punjab win there remaining two encounters, they will need quite a few results to go in their favour.
Playing his last match of the season, Warner once again looked at his very best and combined with a couple of fiery cameos led Hyderabad to 212 for 6 in their 20 overs after they were asked to bat first.
With seven consecutive 50-plus scores against Punjab, Warner once again commenced in a grand fashion and had Wriddhiman Saha for company who was even more ruthless with his approach. There wasn’t much in the surface and both the batsmen made the most of it by going after the young duo of Arshdeep Singh and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
The two bowlers failed to hit the right line and length and were smashed all around the park. The home team went past the 50-run mark in just four overs – fastest this season. Mohammed Shami (2 for 36) and R Ashwin (2 for 30) too tried their luck inside the powerplay but suffered the same fate as Hyderabad raced to 77 for no loss at the end of six overs. Punjab needed a breakthrough and it was M Ashwin who drew the first blood when he had Saha caught behind for 13-ball 28.
Having been amongst runs in his last two encounters, Pandey took some time to settle in and that allowed Punjab to slow things down a bit. Warner brought up his ninth 50-plus score of this season by finding a boundary towards the third man fence and that’s when the two opted to up the ante. R Ashwin brought back Arshdeep and Mujeeb back into the attack and that allowed Warner and Pandey to open their shoulders.
The 82-run stand was finally broken by R Ashwin as Pandey hit one straight into the hands of the fine leg fielder when he was on 36. The offspinner then had Warner caught at point in the same over but only after the left-hander had slammed seven fours and two maximums in his last game of the season. The opener from New South Wales finished with 692 runs in 12 games at an average of 69.20 and has a lead of over 200 runs over the second highest run-getter – Andre Russell (486).
