IPL 10: Match 37, Who Said What: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders

It was all about David Warner in the 37th match of the IPL between home side Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. The Australian lit up the stadium at Hyderabad with his fireworks with the bat. Earlier tonight Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to field first by backing their ability to chase. However, the Sunrisers batsmen had other ideas as they dismissed the Knight Riders’ bowlers to all parts of the ground to score a mammoth 209.

David Warner hit 126 out of the Sunrisers total at a strike rate of 213. The New South Welshman hit 10 fours and 8 sixes as he took the game away from the KKR side in the first innings itself. Kane Willamson provided the final flourish as he scored a 25-ball 40.

The KKR response began with the worst possible start as they lost their skipper cum former orange cap holder Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine within the first three overs. The only partnership of substance came from Uthappa and Manish Pandey who scored 53 and 39 respectively. Every batsman got starts but none went on to finish the game for the Knight Riders.

In the end, they were well short of the required total despite some late flourish from Colin de Grandhomme. Sunrisers won the match by a handsome margin of 48 runs as the visitors could only manage a total of 161. David Warner was adjudged as the man of the match for his explosive batting up-front.

David Warner

Warner applauded the second fiddle role played by Shikhar Dhawan which provided the perfect platform for their side to bat KKR out of the game. The Australian also desired Hyderabad to be their fortress much like their respective home grounds is for the Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians. Warner concluded by thanking the crowd for showing up in huge numbers.

Outstanding. We lost the toss but on this wicket, we were looking to bat first and be positive from ball one. We got to 10rpo and we managed to maintain it throughout the partnership. Shikhar’s run-a-ball contribution was fantastic. It helped a lot. In the last game, I played the second role. (Fielding at long-on and long-off) can be challenging at times for a captain. We tried our best to make this our fortress and we can’t thank the crowd enough

Gautam Gambhir 

Gambhir cited that their fielding let their side down. He followed it up by saying that if they want to end up on top, they have to improve in that department of the game. He looked forward to the upcoming matches at home.

We need to improve in our fielding. We have been very sloppy so far in the tournament, we need to pull up our socks if we have to do well. Catches win matches and you cannot drop catches off a player like David Warner. They could not have got to that score if we had taken our chances. We have two more games at home, hopefully we can play some good cricket