Warner, Kohli the keys in IPL decider

An in-form David Warner looms as the key player when Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL final on Sunday night.

Warner has been in blistering form the Sunrisers during the seven-week tournament, with his unbeaten 93 last week helping the Sunrisers qualify for their maiden IPL decider.

The Australia opener has amassed a whopping 779 runs at the tournament, with India star Virat Kohli (919) the only batsman to have scored more.

It is when his team is chasing that Warner has excelled most, with the 29-year-old's 468 runs when batting second at the IPL the most any batsman has made in a single IPL season.

To put Warner's rich vein of form into perspective, only three other players have scored more than 700 runs in an IPL season since the tournament commenced in 2008.

Flamboyant West Indies opener Chris Gayle did it twice (733 runs in 2012 and 708 in 2013), the ever reliable Michael Hussey scored 733 runs in 2013, while Kohli has broken all sort of records this year ; incredibly, if he makes 81 in the final, he'll have cracked 1,000 for the tournament - a figure previously considered unthinkable.

But no-one in the history of the IPL has gone past 50 more times than Warner, who has reached his half-century on a whopping 33 occasions.

India duo Gautam Gambhir (31 times) and Rohit Sharma (30) aren't too far behind Warner, while Kohli will be looking for his 30th score of more than 50 in Sunday night's IPL final.

Kohli and Warner have had their disagreements in the past, but the pair have a mutual respect for each other's deeds on the field.

"I think he (Warner) has come a long way as a leader in this tournament," Kohli told reporters ahead of Sunday's final.

"The kind of hunger he has had in this tournament to get the job done speaks volumes of his character. I think we both think on similar lines.

"There is a lot of similarity in terms of approaching the game, wanting to contribute for the team's cause, getting people together and wanting them to be at their best."

The stakes are high in Sunday's final, but Kohli said he will be attempting to treat the clash like any other game.

"Composure is key. Try and be as normal as possible. It's the final, everybody will want to win. But be attached, yet be detached," he added.

"If you win you don't stop there, if you lose it's not the end of the world."