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In-form Warner shines again for Sunrisers

Skipper takes the Orange Cap for most IPL9 runs as Hyderabad outclass struggling Punjab

The Match in a Tweet: In-form Warner runs riot, Rahman restricts with a beautiful spell as Sunrisers stroll to five-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab

The Aussie Pack: Captain David Warner stole the show with his fourth half-century in five matches, scoring 59 off 31, in typically belligerent fashion. He smacked seven fours and three sixes, making sure that the 144 target was never a problem for his side. This was after he had called correctly and opted to field again. Moises Henriques (2-33) then caused Kings XI all sorts of trouble, removing dangermen David Miller and compatriot Glenn Maxwell (1 off 2) cheaply.

Shaun Marsh (40 off 34) followed up his half-century in the previous game with another solid display. But without much support, he couldn’t raise the score high enough for his team to challenge.

The Heroes: Win the toss, elect to field and chase the total down; it has been a predictable script for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last three matches. And on all three occasions, it has worked like a charm. Much depends on the red-hot form of Warner, and it takes some serious effort to keep hitting the ball like he is at the moment, just so that he can lead from the front.

Warner has been in such wonderful touch that Shikhar Dhawan’s woeful start to the start has become a non-topic, slowly allowing the Indian opener to get runs. While the Australian is busy marauding the bowling, his partner is content with rotating the strike, hitting the odd boundary and getting runs under his belt. It was much the same again tonight as they put on 90 off 59.

The bowling group: For all the ease with which Hyderabad chase down their target, the rise of their bowling attack has nearly gone unnoticed. Despite missing Ashish Nehra, they have made important strides bowling first, thanks to Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-37) finding form. He struck early once again, removing Murali Vijay cheaply.

Barinder Sran (0-33) and Deepak Hooda (0-30) bowled tightly in the middle overs, with ample support coming from Henriques.

However, their bowling prowess is down to one man, Mustafizur Rahman. His arrival in the Sunrisers’ camp has been a bit muted due to their slow start, but they have realised an ample use of his abilities in the death overs.

Today, he started off with a wicket-maiden in the sixth over, as Manan Vohra (25 off 23) was run-out after getting a start. Then, Warner held him off until the latter half of the innings. And when he came back, the Kings XI batsmen just couldn’t get him away. At one stage his figures read 1-3 from three overs – a wonder in this format. He finished with 2-9 from his four-over spell, inclusive of nine off-cutters, none of which could be scored from.

The Support Role: Dhawan looked in no trouble chasing down the score, after Warner was caught at long on in the 10th over. Even so, with the score reading 1-90 at the stage, the Sunrisers were never going to be in any trouble. Yet they decided to make things interesting. Aditya Tare was run-out for a duck, and Deepak Hooda (5 off 5) went the same way, both wanting a run when none existed.

Eoin Morgan (25 off 20) put up 26 with Dhawan thereafter, before the latter was dismissed top edging Rishi Dhawan (1-35) to the keeper. The score kept trickling along, but the Englishman too departed close to the end, followed by Hooda’s run-out. As much as they tried though, Punjab never had enough runs to make things interesting. Hyderabad duly won with 2.1 overs to spare, by five wickets, unnecessarily losing more batsmen than they should have.

The Tale of Woe: The sorry state of affairs continued for Kings XI after Vijay’s cheap dismissal. For a bit, it looked as if Vohra and Marsh might be able to dig them out of yet another hole. But after Vohra was run-out, once again it fell on Marsh’s shoulders, as the others just couldn’t contribute. In particular, Miller (9 off 11) and Maxwell continued to disappoint, as Punjab’s big guns remained silent once again.

They fell in the same over for a third time this season, Henriques doing the trick in the 10th over.

Marsh was a bit more aggressive than his last outing, hitting three fours and two sixes, but he didn’t have an answer to Rahman’s bag of tricks, out lbw in the 14th over with the score reading 5-89. It was young Axar Patel’s blistering 36 off 17, inclusive of a four and three sixes, that brought some urgency to the innings. They got 40 off five overs in the death, and yet finished with a very below-par 6-143.

The Stat: Warner had reached 50 off 23, the third-fastest in this year’s IPL. Incidentally, he also holds the record for the fastest half-century yet, off 21 deliveries against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Overall it was his 29th fifty in IPL history, one that brought him the Orange Cap again, with an aggregate of 294 runs (ave 98, SR 168) from five games thus far. His scores this tournament read: 58, 13, 90no, 74no, 59. 

The Wash-Up: With their third win on the bounce, Sunrisers Hyderabad have now climbed to third in the standings, with six points from four matches. They are dependent on Warner giving them good starts. As long as he can work the magic, they don’t have anything to worry about, particularly, with their bowling looking in good touch and restricting oppositions to low totals.

For Punjab, the misery continues as their power-hitters have failed yet again. It is about time that questions need to be asked of Miller’s captaincy, for he simply looks lacking in confidence to take the team forward. It isn’t unheard of for franchises to change captains mid-way through the IPL to save the season, and Kings XI have nine matches to do that as they languish at the bottom of the pile.

The Next Stop: The Sunrisers stay put in Hyderabad and will host Rising Pune Supergiants on Tuesday. Kings XI will travel home to Mohali and take on Mumbai Indians on Monday.