David Warner ton helps Sunrisers Hyderabad coast to 48-run win against KKR

A scintillating century from Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner helped his team beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 48 runs on Sunday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Doing so, the Sunrisers increased the gap between the top three in the table and the rest. SRH are currently third, with 13 points, one behind KKR and Mumbai Indians. SRH are also unbeaten at home, winning all five matches they have played in Hyderabad.

The David Warner show

David Warner snatched the Orange Cap from his opposite number Gautam Gambhir’s head by smashing the third century of this IPL season. Things looked ominous for KKR right from the beginning of the innings, when the Australian southpaw punished Umesh Yadav’s over-pitched delivery by dispatching it over long-off for six.

Warner brought out his full range of shots, including the reverse sweeps. Even though he has been a consistent performer for his team over the last two seasons, he produces such gems every now and then that rise above the rest.

Remember, this was against a very strong, in-form KKR bowling line-up: Umesh Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Woakes, Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav – the same one that dismantled the Royal Challengers Bangalore for 49 a few days ago. Warner rudely toyed with this attack.

SRH reached 89/0 at the end of the Powerplay (six overs). Warner and Shikhar Dhawan then brought up their second consecutive hundred-run partnership, of which the Australian had scored 80% of the runs. He took just 43 runs to score his century. He was finally dismissed for 126 off 59 balls – the seventh-highest score in IPL history. The rest of the SRH batsmen scored 83 off 61 balls, as the team put on 209/3 on the board.

KKR’s shambolic catching

Warner and SRH would have scored a lot less than what they did, had KKR’s catching been a little better. Woakes had the chance to catch Warner twice, but misjudged the first one and spilled the other. Warner was just on 13 when the first chance went begging. Later in the innings, Sheldon Jackson dropped an absolute lolly at the boundary, off the bat of Yuvraj Singh, but this was when SRH’s score was already above 200.

Uthappa tries his best

If there’s one team that had a chance of chasing 210, it was KKR, and maybe Mumbai Indians the way they’re going. The highest successful run-chase on this ground was 211/4 by Kings XI Punjab in 2014. There was hope, and KKR’s top order has been in excellent form this season, especially captain Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa.

However, scoreboard pressure was to get to the visitors, as openers Sunil Narine and Gambhir were dismissed very early, going for the big shots. This brought Manish Pandey together with Uthappa. The two struck a partnership and put on 78 runs for the third wicket, before both were dismissed in quick succession after a mid-innings rain delay.

Uthappa played some glorious strokes in his 28-ball 53, which included four fours and as many sixes. Doing so, he continued with his great form this season, which has already seen him hit five half-centuries in eight innings. But once he was gone, KKR had no chance, as they eventually fell short by 48 runs.

Brief score:

Sunrisers Hyderabad 209/3 in 20 overs (David Warner 126, Kane Williamson 40; Chris Woakes 1/46) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 161/7 in 20 overs (Robin Uthappa 53, Manish Pandey 39; M Siraj 2/26, Siddharth Kaul 2/26, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/29) by 48 runs.