IPL 9 Match 12, Review: David Warner masterclass helps SRH post their first win of the season

Skipper David Warner (90 from 59 balls) played a match-winning knock to single-handedly guide Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to their first win of the season. Warner continued his sublime form and struck his 2nd half-century in the tournament to help SRH chase down the target set by Mumbai Indians (MI) with 7 wickets in hand.

SRH were asked to chase 143 runs by Mumbai Indians after being put into bat by Warner who won the toss and opted to field first. Once again Shikhar Dhawan made a blink and a miss appearance at the crease. Tim Southee’s pinpoint yorker uprooted his leg stump to make the struggling left-hander depart in the 1st over.

But, Warner took complete control of task after the early setback and pummeled the opposition brutally. He teamed up with countryman Moises Henriques to put on a 62 run stand for the 2nd wicket, putting SRH in the driver’s seat. Henriques was sort of sleeping partner, contributing sluggish 20 runs in 22 balls while Warner did the bulk of the scoring.

Tim Southee, with the wickets of Henriques in the 11th over and Eoin Morgan in the 15th over, delayed the chase for SRH to some extent. However, the game was in the pockets of SRH with the team needing just 35 off the last five overs. Deepak Hooda (17 from 9 balls) then joined Warner in the middle to ensure that there are no further roadblocks. The chase ended smoothly when the hero of the match, Warner slammed a six over square leg for the winning runs.

Earlier, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill (2 from 4 balls), who was flown down to Mumbai as a replacement for Lendl Simmons, had a very poor start to his IPL career after lost his wicket in the first over of the match itself, falling to Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Barinder Sran then snapped Parthiv Patel a couple of overs later to reduce MI to 23/2. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler also were dismissed cheaply before the halfway stage of the first innings. MI, reeling at 61/4 after 11 overs, were in a state of bother following the failure of their batting order.

Ambati Rayudu (54 from 49 balls) and Krunal Pandya (49 from 28 balls) then came to the team’s rescue and weaved a 63 run fifth wicket stand to help Mumbai post a defendable total. Krunal’s entry in the middle added bit of spice to the innings.

After a couple of silent overs, Pandya loosened himself and crunched three back to back sixes off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma in the 14th over. The run rate jumped 5.53 to 7.00 in just a matter of that one over.

The partnership, eventually, was brought an end in the 18^th over when Sran dismissed Rayudu (54 from 49 balls). Mustafizur Rahman (1/32), Barinder Sran (3/28) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/17) pressed their dominance in the last phase of the innings and bowled miserly, conceding just 31 runs in the last 5 overs to restrict Mumbai Indians for just 142/6 after 20 overs.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Indians: 142/6 in 20 overs (Ambati Rayudu 54; Barinder Sran 3/28)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 145/3 in 17.3 overs (David Warner 90; Tim Southee 3/24)

Man of the Match: David Warner