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Warner leads Hyderabad home

David Warner secures his maiden win as an Indian Premier League skipper after thumping half-century and stunning catch

David Warner recorded his fastest IPL fifty to help the Sunrisers Hyderabad to an eight-wicket win over a Royal Challengers Bangalore side dearly missing Mitchell Starc at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Chasing a modest score of 167, Warner provided Hyderabad with a rollicking start and, with opening partner Shikhar Dhawan settling down in a more conservative role, the target was never beyond their reach. The pair took 16 runs from the opening over from Sydney Sixers allrounder Sean Abbott, thrust into the new ball role with Starc and Adam Milne out with injury.

Warner was dismissed for a 27-ball 57 but by that time their opponents were in need of a miracle to come back into the game. Dhawan and KL Rahul ensured nothing of that sort materialised for the Royal Challengers Bangalore to bring up the win with 17 balls to spare. The Hyderabad captain secured his maiden victory in charge of the IPL franchise and was also named the man of the match for his superlative effort.

This was after Bangalore had been strangled in the later stages of their innings to at least 20 less than what they looked like getting at the halfway point.

Karn Sharma choked the run-flow when they needed a move on while Trent Boult and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up five wickets between them in the last couple of overs to ensure there would be no last-minute heroics by the lower-middle order.

Bangalore failed to drill home the advantage they got from the start their top-order had provided them. At 2-93 in the 12th over of the innings and with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the crease, they were looking at a lot more than the 166 they finally achieved.

What added to their woes was that Abbott proved to be ineffective for the second game in a row, as Warner tore into him in his very first over. He came back to bowl his second late in the chase and while he conceded just five went wicketless. 

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Tough day at the office for Sean Abbott // BCCI

Kohli suggested after the game that Milne was nearing a return to fitness and could come back into the side for their next game, not until Sunday, while Starc could also be with the side by then.

Bangalore went in with the same XI that defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders in their previous game while the Sunrisers decided to make two changes.  

They decided to play Trent Boult ahead of Dale Steyn for the second game in a row, while allrounder Moises Henriques missed out yet again. They brought in Praveen Kumar in place of Ishant Sharma, who conceded 46 from the three overs he bowled last game. Medium-pacer Ashish Reddy also came in for off-spinner Parvez Rasool.

Kohli, who had opened the innings for Bangalore against Kolkata, gave it another go on the night. Explaining the rationale at the toss, he said he complemented Chris Gayle well and if they did get going, it could "set the tone to the innings".

The pair did set the tone well. Gayle did not last the distance but was there long enough to smack a six and three fours in his stint. He added 43 for the first wicket with Kohli and as is usually the case with him, the runs came quickly.

In the past, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has gotten the better of Gayle regularly, but it was another Kumar, Praveen, who ensured the Jamaican was reined in before he turned really dangerous.

After swinging Praveen across for a four over mid-wicket, Gayle decided to muscle a powerful flick over the on-side but he found the only player there, at fine-leg. Unfortunately for Gayle, neither did he get the elevation he wanted, nor the gap.

The Bangalore captain, despite the attractiveness of his strokes, made a slow start to his innings. He was lucky to survive an early shout for lbw from Trent Boult, which on replays suggested should have gone in favour of the bowler.

He had his problems against the in-swing of Boult in his second over but he decided to line up the Kiwi bowler for that kind of movement in his next and managed to whack a six and a four off it.  

Later, in Karn Sharma’s very first over, Kohli offered a straightforward catch back to the bowler but it was dropped.  Kohli was on five when that lbw decision went in his favour and on 21 when Karn let him off but he would be disappointed to have been unable to take full toll of those lives. 

Restless to have not gotten going after having batted 30 balls, the captain smashed a four and a six off Praveen and then lofted Karn inside out to get into the 40s.

Soon after though, he got out to the medium-pace of Ravi Bopara, attempting to cut it through backward point. Kohli missed, Bopara hit. Just a ball later, Mandeep Singh’s attempt to work Bopara through mid-wicket resulted in getting a leading edge and a diving Warner got hold of a brilliant catch to his right. It was a grab that reminded the old faithfuls of a catch that Ricky Ponting had taken to get rid of Unmukt Chand in the 2013 IPL against Delhi.

From 2-93, they had fallen to 4-93 in 12 overs and Bopara was on a hat-trick. Darren Sammy averted the hat-trick next over, but after getting facing eight balls for his six, he played all over a yorker from Ashish Reddy and had his stumps pegged back.

De Villiers began to open his shoulders in Bopara’s third over, hitting him for a four before sweeping medium-pacer Reddy for a six two overs later. Abbott gave de Villiers some support and even helped himself to a six off a low full-toss by Praveen on his pads and then a slashing four through the covers.

That 14-run over looked to have brought Bangalore back into the reckoning with a couple of overs but Boult’s final over changed the equation yet again. He grabbed three wickets in that 19th over of the innings including de Villiers’ for 46 and Abbott (14) and when Bhuvneshwar yorked the remaining two batsmen in the final over, Bangalore had fallen way short of what they wanted.

Karn’s spell in the middle of the innings, four overs that he bowled on the bounce, proved to be one of the turning points of the match. After making a potentially costly error by dropping Kohli, he could have lost his way; instead he kept a lid on the scoring throughout his four and sent back Karthik.

In reply, Hyderabad were off to a flier with Warner and Dhawan giving no respite to the bowlers. While there were signs the ball needed to dried regularly even in the first innings, the opening Bangalore bowlers looked to be struggling even more with that problem.

Abbott started off with a full-toss first ball and was crunched away by Warner through the covers. Three balls later, Dhawan welcomed Abbott with a couple of fours of his own, one through each side of the wicket.

Harshal Patel had it worse. He never found his direction while bowling at Warner; started with one on his pads, a length ball on off and then a full-toss outside the off, all of which were sent packing to the fence. And then to complete the full suit of bad balls, Patel tried a bouncer at 130 km/hr as well which Warner had no problem pulling it over the rope for a six.

Bangalore looked to creep back into the game with a couple of tighter overs, bringing run-rate down with just seven from the next two but Warner was only warming up for another assault during the Powerplay.

Aaron, after conceding five from his first over, was torn apart in by Warner a manner not too different from the way it had gone for him in the first innings of both, the Adelaide and Brisbane Test of the Border-Gavaskar series.

A length ball was dispatched over the bowler for a four, a bouncer pulled for another four and then Warner played an upper-cut off Aaron that sailed over the third-man fielder for a maximum.

And then a six off Abu Nechim in the final over of the Powerplay took Hyderabad to 0-65 from six overs. The game had all but slipped from Bangalore’s grasp.

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Warner salutes his second IPL 50 in as many matches // BCCI

Warner brought up his 50 soon after, from just 25 balls, making it his quickest in IPL cricket. And he celebrated it by helping Yuzvendra Singh’s slightly shorter delivery over backward square-leg for another six in the eighth over.

It was Yuzvendra who finally got rid of Warner, lbw as he tried to slog it away again, but by then the Sunrisers had helped themselves to 82 before the eighth over was up.

Williamson’s promotion up to the number three spot did not bring Hyderabad much joy as Yuzvendra grabbed his second wicket by having the Kiwi stumped, but a well-set Dhawan and KL Rahul guided their side to a comfortable victory.

Dhawan also brought up his half-century, getting there with a pick-up six over deep square-leg, while Rahul completed the formality with a four and a six, and remaining unbeaten on 44 from just 28 deliveries.