Overwhelming for me to lead this side: David Warner

The Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the finals of the IPL 2016 to become the new champions of IPL. It was the captain fantastic David Warner, who was absolutely phenomenal on the night of the finals as well and led from the front.

The victory celebrations erupted for the men in orange and the players jumped and danced in the team huddle. The joyous scenes at the venue were enough to describe what it meant to the winning team and also how heartening it was for Virat Kohli and his team after falling short by 8 runs. Talking about the win, all-rounder Moises Henriques called it a lot of fun.

“That was a lot of fun (talking about the win). There’s a lot of cricket and travel, but you get to make a lot of friends. It was such good fun and such a good tournament to have with both internationals and the domestic players,” quoted Moises Henriques.

Twitter reactions on the final – Twitter Reactions: Sunrisers Hyderabad lift the IPL 2016 trophy

Yuvraj Singh scored a gritty 38 off 23 balls in the finals. He credited the bowlers for getting a few wickets in the middle that turned the game for Sunrisers.

“It’s great. Had the World Cup and now have the IPL trophy too. Gayle was going strong but a few wickets let us in. Great finish by Bhuvneshwar in the end. I am happy with the injury and as long as the trophy comes, it’s good. Great team effort from the boys,” said Yuvraj Singh.

Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody said that team will definitely sing the team song and enjoy the moment. “They (the team) deserve to be off the chains and we will sing the team song again tonight (on the team singing it without him). We will make sure everyone in the side knows the words to the team song.”

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In the match, it was allrounder Ben Cutting, who came good with both bat and the ball. Cutting hit 39 off just 15 balls that included a 117m six. He then followed it up with figures of 2/35. “It was exciting to play in front of such a big crowd. It was nice to get a few out of the middle tonight. Bhuvi was fantastic for us throughout with the purple cap and to finish it off in that way was good. That’s the beautiful thing about Bangalore. You can go the distance as batsman and the bowler as well,” Ben Cutting said.

Virat Kohli was the undisputed winner of the Orange Cap with 973 runs to his name in 16 matches. Kohli admitted that on the personal front the Orange cap was a good incentive, however, he felt gutted having lost the game.

“It’s a nice incentive for the way we’ve got about this season, but not that nice to be standing on the other side of the result. The reason why SRH won was because they had a strong bowling attack. I knew I was hitting the ball well, lucky that I was able to score. Why not? Records are meant to be broken. Someone with a better season can break this. Previous 770 odd was thought to be massive. We have to consider that I opened the batting and someone batting at No. 3 or down the order would not have had that much opportunities to score big,”

Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged 23 wickets in 17 matches to take the Purple Cap. He formed a formidable pair with Mustafizur Rahman in the bowling department.

“I wasn’t happy with the way I started the tournament, but I would like to appereciate myself for the way I picked up. Also credit to VVS Laxman who came to me and said after the first two matches, ‘It doesn’t matter, you are the one who will win us matches.’ I was focsuing on improving my death bowling. It helped to have Mustafizur at the other end because he’s difficult to hit,” said Bhuvneshwar Kumar after winning the Purple Cap.

Virat Kohli won the Player of the tournament too for his extraordinary effort. Kohli amassed 973 runs which included 4 centuries in the season. “I don’t want to bore the winning team too much. They deserve to talk more (smiles). I mean the winning team and the captain,”

Royal Challengers Bangalore won Rs. 10 crores for ending up as therunner-upp of the tournament. Skipper Virat Kohli lauded the team effort for coming this far and also congratulated the winning team Sunrisers Hyderabad on their championship win.

“I am really proud of the way we played as a team this season. This was for the crowd and we wanted to do it for them. The support was great from them. I feel gutted that we didn’t do it for them. We were walking around to thank the crowd. Dan mentioned that we scored 200 and we lost, we were just short by 8 runs, but that’s how it is. Sometimes luck doesn’t go your way. They (SRH) capitalized on the key moments. I want to congratulate the Sunrisers, they are the deserving winners,” quoted Virat Kohli.

David Warner the man of the moment and captain fantastic rose to the occasion. He scored his 9th fifty of the season in the finals and amassed 848 runs in the tournament, next to only Kohli’s 973. He lifted the trophy for Sunrisers and collected a cheque of Rs. 15 crores for winning the tournament.

“It’s a fantastic team achievement. It’s overwhelming for me to lead this side, thanks for the chairman and the team for giving me this opportunity. The credit goes to all the guys in the team. I was happy that I led by example with the runs. It was a team effort. To have that perfect game and gel as a side, it’s really hard to get the combinations right. It was a team effort. They have a phenomenal squad. Look at the way Kohli led from the front. He’s a great leader. India are in a great place for the next few years that he’s playing for sure. He set the benchmark for all the guys in the tournament. To win three games to win the tournament, to come to Bangalore and do this was special. We were true underdogs. The boys batted, bowled and fielded well. And off the field, the support staff, the marketing team, everyone deserves credit. I am off to the Caribbean after 24 hours,” quoted the champion skipper David Warner.