Chris Gayle. Virat Kohli. AB de Villiers. Darren Sammy. Had even one of these four time-bombs exploded, Royal Challengers Bangalore would have eclipsed Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were nursing a 45-run defeat coming into this contest.
But the detonation happened in the opposite camp. The David Warner dynamite. He pulverised the Royal Challengers bowling attack so ruthlessly so that the match was virtually over by the time Warner departed in the eighth over while chasing Bangalore’s 166.
David becomes Goliath
Warner scored a 27-ball 57, comprising six fours and four sixes. When David Warner gets going; the going gets tough. Virat Kohli would have realized this axiom better than anyone else last night. He looked stupefied as Warner destroyed his bowlers one by one. Aided by some ordinary bowling, Warner made the most of the excellent batting conditions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The first ball he faced was a juicy full toss that was dismissed through the covers. Later in the innings, he didn’t look like he needed more bad balls. Nevertheless, they kept coming. The plan (if there was one) was to bowl short to Warner. Now, that is like punching stone walls; inevitably, only you get hurt. They kept bowling short and he kept hitting them out of the ground. The only way to keep him quiet was to bowl yorkers. But when the Bangalore bowlers erred even in those efforts, Warner made sure they rued.
Demolition derby
There are batsmen who can attack an opposition. Shikhar Dhawan, for instance, is a fine attacking batsmen who has a repertoire of strokes that are seemingly gentle and harmless. Most of the time, it is a punch off the back foot or a flourishing drive through the covers that gets him boundaries. Some of these strokes would make even the opposition applaud.
And then there are batsmen like David Warner, who can completely demoralise the opposition. He plays his shots with such brutal power and disdain that it shatters the other team’s morale. A team with two current international captains and one former captain were clueless during Warner’s assault.
It was great for Sunrisers that Warner played his natural game after a surprisingly stifled approach in his previous outing against CSK. Sometimes the responsibility of captaincy might make a player to adopt a moderate approach to his batting. But Warner played his natural game on Monday. And he should continue that for the rest of the tournament to give his team the best chance to win more matches.
The many faces of David Warner
David Warner the skipper doesn’t seem to be as aggressive as David Warner the batsman. The usually noisy Warner (when he plays for Australia) is conspicuously quiet on the field. Apart from the occasional gestures that direct the field placements, Warner is always silent. No wonder Sunrisers are placed No.2 in the Fair Play award.
David Warner the fielder needs little introduction. He took a blinder at short cover to dismiss Mandeep Singh, flying to his right and catching the ball in one hand. Overall, Hyderabad’s fielding performance was better than their last game against Chennai.
Bowlers support the captain
Warner’s bowlers were effective against a batting line-up that is one of the most dangerous in the IPL. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Trent Boult were impressive in their choice of line and length. The duo was accurate for the most part.
Boult produced a brilliant penultimate over of the RCB innings, taking three wickets, including the one of the dangerous de Villiers. Kumar is an intelligent bowler who seems to know the right lines and lengths for different occasions and different batsmen. His accuracy in delivering yorkers makes him a good death bowler as well. With a little more improvement, Boult and Kumar could become the most potent opening bowlers in the IPL.
The other bowlers – Karn Sharma, Praveen Kumar (who came in for Ishant Sharma), and Ravi Bopara – too played their part in picking up wickets whenever RCB gained momentum. Karn Sharma has to improve a lot as a leg-spinner. But he worked well within his limitations and bowled tighter lines on Monday, which frustrated RCB’s batsmen who kept looking to go big. Bopara, too, bowled a stump-to-stump line that fetched him two wickets.
There are a lot of things that SRH did right on Monday: the Boult-Kumar opening spell; containing the run flow in the middle overs; saving runs on the field; effective death bowling; promoting Kane Williamson to number three. But despite ticking off all these boxes, they needed their skipper to play a crucial knock. He did, and how!
Sunrisers Hyderabad (172 for 2) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (166) by 8 wickets.
But the detonation happened in the opposite camp. The David Warner dynamite. He pulverised the Royal Challengers bowling attack so ruthlessly so that the match was virtually over by the time Warner departed in the eighth over while chasing Bangalore’s 166.
David becomes Goliath
Warner scored a 27-ball 57, comprising six fours and four sixes. When David Warner gets going; the going gets tough. Virat Kohli would have realized this axiom better than anyone else last night. He looked stupefied as Warner destroyed his bowlers one by one. Aided by some ordinary bowling, Warner made the most of the excellent batting conditions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The first ball he faced was a juicy full toss that was dismissed through the covers. Later in the innings, he didn’t look like he needed more bad balls. Nevertheless, they kept coming. The plan (if there was one) was to bowl short to Warner. Now, that is like punching stone walls; inevitably, only you get hurt. They kept bowling short and he kept hitting them out of the ground. The only way to keep him quiet was to bowl yorkers. But when the Bangalore bowlers erred even in those efforts, Warner made sure they rued.
Demolition derby
There are batsmen who can attack an opposition. Shikhar Dhawan, for instance, is a fine attacking batsmen who has a repertoire of strokes that are seemingly gentle and harmless. Most of the time, it is a punch off the back foot or a flourishing drive through the covers that gets him boundaries. Some of these strokes would make even the opposition applaud.
And then there are batsmen like David Warner, who can completely demoralise the opposition. He plays his shots with such brutal power and disdain that it shatters the other team’s morale. A team with two current international captains and one former captain were clueless during Warner’s assault.
It was great for Sunrisers that Warner played his natural game after a surprisingly stifled approach in his previous outing against CSK. Sometimes the responsibility of captaincy might make a player to adopt a moderate approach to his batting. But Warner played his natural game on Monday. And he should continue that for the rest of the tournament to give his team the best chance to win more matches.
The many faces of David Warner
David Warner the skipper doesn’t seem to be as aggressive as David Warner the batsman. The usually noisy Warner (when he plays for Australia) is conspicuously quiet on the field. Apart from the occasional gestures that direct the field placements, Warner is always silent. No wonder Sunrisers are placed No.2 in the Fair Play award.
David Warner the fielder needs little introduction. He took a blinder at short cover to dismiss Mandeep Singh, flying to his right and catching the ball in one hand. Overall, Hyderabad’s fielding performance was better than their last game against Chennai.
Bowlers support the captain
Warner’s bowlers were effective against a batting line-up that is one of the most dangerous in the IPL. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Trent Boult were impressive in their choice of line and length. The duo was accurate for the most part.
Boult produced a brilliant penultimate over of the RCB innings, taking three wickets, including the one of the dangerous de Villiers. Kumar is an intelligent bowler who seems to know the right lines and lengths for different occasions and different batsmen. His accuracy in delivering yorkers makes him a good death bowler as well. With a little more improvement, Boult and Kumar could become the most potent opening bowlers in the IPL.
The other bowlers – Karn Sharma, Praveen Kumar (who came in for Ishant Sharma), and Ravi Bopara – too played their part in picking up wickets whenever RCB gained momentum. Karn Sharma has to improve a lot as a leg-spinner. But he worked well within his limitations and bowled tighter lines on Monday, which frustrated RCB’s batsmen who kept looking to go big. Bopara, too, bowled a stump-to-stump line that fetched him two wickets.
There are a lot of things that SRH did right on Monday: the Boult-Kumar opening spell; containing the run flow in the middle overs; saving runs on the field; effective death bowling; promoting Kane Williamson to number three. But despite ticking off all these boxes, they needed their skipper to play a crucial knock. He did, and how!
Sunrisers Hyderabad (172 for 2) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (166) by 8 wickets.
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