We didn’t take the game on like we did in the previous game: David Warner

Having shown promise and played well over the past few matches, the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) middle-order woes can back to haunt them in last night’s game against KXIP in the 2020 IPL. SRH were 56 for no wicket after the powerplay chasing 127, but they went on to lose by 14 runs.

Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar were looking good to take them through, but thanks to some very disciplined bowling by the KXIP bowlers, they could not accelerate at any stage. Their wickets sparked a lower-order collapse, which saw their last 7 wickets fall for 14 runs.

SRH skipper David Warner said, “It was very disappointing. Obviously we didn’t get the job done, probably complacent in the middle (overs), we didn’t take the game on enough like we did in the previous game. I think we probably felt that we were going to get the runs easily, and then we sort of let the balls get ahead of the runs. That’s what happens in a game of cricket. If you give the opposition a sniff, it (the game) can get taken from you very fast.”

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Warner then spoke about the conditions which seemed averse to batting. The conditions in Dubai changed as the game went on and it became difficult for batsmen in the second innings, especially with the pace being taken off. Hitting boundaries against the old ball was hard as even Kings XI Punjab found out when they went boundary-less for more than 10 overs in the back end of their innings. 

SRH lost their last 7 wickets for 14 runs

Warner said, “It (pitch) slowed down but the outfield got very wet. So from that point of view, you should know, as a batter, some of the conditions. The ball was going to be slow off the wicket, so you just have to assess that. Hard lengths were obviously going to be hard to hit. When you’re chasing a total that’s very achievable and you are ahead in the game, you should be able to manipulate the field, rotate strike, get ones – we just didn’t do that.”

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Warner then spoke about the intent with which he took on the bowlers last night. He said, “I was going back to my old school days. I was opening my front legs and just taking on the powerplay. Something I haven’t done for a long time. It’s one of those things where I felt that the best part of the powerplay was to go after their main bowler who swings the ball, and he is a very good bowler, is Shami.

“So I just tried to apply a bit of pressure. Yeah, it’s fair to say that I’ve probably been quite reserved (with the batting) in the last few years. So it was nice to open the front leg and show that I’ve still got that.”