5 Best knocks by David Warner for Sunrisers Hyderabad
With the Sunrisers Hyderabad all set to open their IPL 2019 campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, all eyes will be on David Warner, who is returning one year after the infamous ball-tampering saga forced him out of the game.
Undoubtedly, the southpaw has been the most valuable player for the Hyderabad-based franchise. He finished as the top run-getter for the team in every season he has played for them, having received the Orange Cap twice – in 2015 and 2017.
Warner has amassed 2579 runs for the franchise in 59 games – with an outstanding average of 52.63 and an even better strike rate of 147.70.
The highest point came when the Australian led the side to their first ever title win in 2016 – a season where he scored a staggering 848 runs.
Here is a look at David Warner’s five best innings for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
#5 61 (28) vs CSK: Match 34 (2015) at Hyderabad
Without the services of David Warner in 2018, the Sunrisers had a surprisingly good season. They finished runners-up, but one fact glaringly stood out. They played CSK four times, and lost on all four occasions.
They were perhaps missing Warner, who has a few solid knocks against CSK to his name. One such knock was in Hyderabad in 2015, when his whirlwind innings blew the visitors apart.
Batting first, the hosts were probably looking to set CSK a target of around 170, but a pull by Warner towards square-leg for four in the very first delivery of the innings set the stage running for a big total.
Even though Shikhar Dhawan was looking rusty at the other end, Warner took the bulk of the strike and used the extra bounce in the Hyderabad pitch to his advantage. The southpaw scored a huge chunk of his boundaries through pulls, as the Chennai seamers unsuccessfully tried the short-ball tactic on him.
Though the Australian fell in only the ninth over, he had already blasted 11 fours and a six, scoring 61 off just 28 deliveries. The Sunrisers found themselves in a commanding position at 86 for one, from where the rest of the batsman propelled the score towards 192.
Chasing a high total, the Chennai batsman always found themselves playing catch-up with the run rate. With wickets falling at regular intervals, the visitors never got their chase going, eventually falling short of Hyderabad’s score by 22 runs.
Brief Scores: SRH 192/7 (Warner 61, Bravo 3/25) beat CSK 170/6 (Henriques 2/20)