Lot of credit to Bipul for playing the way he did: David Warner

Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) saw, Gujarat Lions (GL) taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Feroz Shah Kotla, for a spot in the final. After winning the toss, SRH skipper David Warner was happy to get the opposition into bat.

Aaron Finch with his 5th half-century of the season gave the late punch to the innings and Gujarat posted a decent total of 162. Having a score on the board is always an advantage in crunch games and Gujarat Lions added to that pressure with the early dismissal of Shikhar Dhawan. Warner anchored the innings but SRH kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the match was sliding away from his their grasp.

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Warner was highly disappointed with “some silly shots and errors” by his teammates. After the dismissal of Ben Cutting, Naman Ojha started off well with a six of Dwayne Smith but soon after he hit a full toss to the hands of Ravindra Jadeja at mid-wicket. In the strategic time out after this dismissal, Warner was furious about those silly shots and one more wicket at that stage could have ended their hopes of making it into the finals.

Bipul Sharma was the next batsman, who clobbered Morne Morkel for two sixes in the previous match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which proved to be the difference in the end. Bipul scored 27 runs off just 11 balls with three sixes. The second six was a pressure boundary after the first 4 balls of the 18th yielding just 2 runs. Dhawal Kulkarni was executing his plan of bowling those wide yorkers and Bipul walked across anticipating the yorker, and scooped it over short fine-leg for a six and the pressure was released.

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“I know if I could hang in there, the end we were capable of chasing it. Lot of credit to Bipul for playing the way he did. He’s been bowling well, his work ethic has been fantastic. All about having one batter in a good partnership,” said Warner.

With 4 balls remaining, the SRH skipper took his side home, and in the process, he scored 93 runs off 58 balls with 11 fours and 3 sixes. He has been a one-man army with the bat for SRH, scoring 779 runs so far in this season which is 33 percent of the total runs SRH has scored. However, he credited his team for the performance, “My turn to take us to the end. I’m not going to take any credit for it.”

On the final against RCB in the final, Warner said, “I thought we have to come back strong from the last time we played them (RCB). We won the toss and bowled, and they put the runs on the board. Virat Kohli, what a player. We will try to get him out but the other players bat well around him. When he fails, there’s ABD. It’s about executing our skills and not worrying about the players they have. It’s all about having a gameplan, that is all we can do. Thanks to the crowd who have been fantastic for the whole tournament.” SRH will play against RCB for the title on 29th May.