I'm happy that the guys have stepped up: David Warner

The Sunrisers Hyderabad versus Kolkata Knight Riders Eliminator played at the Feroz Shah Kotla was expected to be on the slower side and assist the spinners. But a first look at the wicket for the game and one could see a ting of grass on it; the grass was maintained in order to help the ball come onto the bat nicely and be a true batting surface. As it turned out, being asked to bat first the Sunrisers suffered hiccups but were able to beat the Knight Riders by a comfortable margin of 22 runs and make their way to the second qualifier to be played at the same venue against the Gujarat Lions.

A content yet cautious David Warner after their victory said, “I thought we were 10 or 15 runs a bit short,”

He said he wasn’t sure if it was the right decision to bat first or bowl after having a look at the wicket. “Before the toss I was in two minds, if I won it, whether to bat or bowl. I have always felt that playing here in the past, when you get good runs on the board and put pressure on the opposition, it is always hard to get going. That’s how we felt today when we were batting. We talked about not losing wickets in clumps, and then I played the shot like how I did and then let two new batters come in.”

Warner and his partner in crime Shikhar Dhawan walked out to open the innings and looked to give the team a momentum into the game, which they have done so often in the tournament but Wednesday was different as Morne Morkel cleaned up Dhawan in the very second over of the game. Moises Henriques was promoted to no.3 and the skipper had a rebuilding partnership with him. The duo put together 59 runs for the second wicket and stabilized the inning. Gautam Gambhir changed the strategy and brought in the Chinaman and it got him immediate results as Kuldeep Yadav removed both Warner and Henriques in the same over. It was Yuvraj Singh who played his best knock in this IPL scoring 44 off 30 balls to guide them to a total over 160.

Talking about the wicket Warner said, “I have played here in the past where it has been pretty low and slow and where there has been no grass on the square,”

“I feel they have done a very good job here. It’s a wicket that suits – you look at Jason holder and Morne Morkel – the length they bowled was very hard to hit. You know, tall bounce, hitting the wicket, sort of skidding on bail high. Very hard to get going and trying to hit and have release shots. They built pressure.”

At the halfway stage one could get a feeling that if the Kolkata bowlers bowled that well on this surface, the Sunrisers trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran and Mustafizur will definitely make life difficult for the KKR batsmen and that is what heppened.

Talking about the way his team responded to the challenge the SRH skipper said, “It makes me very happy,”

“The guys have stepped up, and Barinder Sran has been bowling very well. He is still learning, he is still a bit green, but he is always willing to learn. I think the big credit goes to Bhuvnesh because he has been helping him a lot. He has been talking to him day in and day out about what plans to have to different players. He is learning. That is the good thing about this team. Everyone is still willing to learn while we are still playing. Everyone is adapting as we are going along in this tournament. But yeah fantastic efforts today by the bowlers, and obviously towards the end Bipul Sharma hitting two sixes really helped us to get to a good total.”

He also said that he is a believer that having the runs on the board always helps you put pressure on the opposition and will more often than not work in their favor. “I am a believer of runs on the board,”

David Warner added, “In these kind of games, in these pressure situations, it is always are a lot handier. When you see a total of 160, you can be in two minds as a batting unit. You can either get off to a good start and have positive intent or you can try and get through the first six and set a platform to the end. There is always going to be pressure in every situation but with runs on the board you can always feel a little bit ahead of the game if you get a good start.”

“Always chasing on a wicket like this, it is hard to start early. You saw when they lost wickets in clumps and we didn’t let them have a partnership going, it was hard for the new batter to come in and play their shots. The pressure was on the other guy at the other end to play their shots. That’s what happens in this format. If you get two new batters in, it is very hard when you are chasing.”

None of the KKR batsmen could really get going, neither their solid top order nor the likes of Yusuf Pathan in the middle though, Manish Pandey tried but couldn’t take them over the line. “I felt that if we got Pandey out, we were always going to be in a good shape to win this game. I felt that our bowlers executed very well. If you look at their bottom hitting as well, a guy like Jason holder can come in and hit the ball out of the park. It was exciting to get a couple of early wickets first up. We knew the important wickets were going to be obviously Pandey and Yusuf on this wicket because it is more of a track where those guys can hit the ball and get ahead of the run rate. So we knew if we could get them two out when they came in and didn’t let them build a partnership like the last game, we were always going to be ahead of the game.”