OPENER David Warner was at his brilliant best as he smashed an unbeaten 90 to get Sunrisers Hyderabad up and running in the Indian Premier League (IPL).Warner played a captain’s innings to inspire Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first IPL victory of the season at the expense of champions Mumbai Indians yesterday.
The Sunrisers lost their first two IPL matches to sit bottom of the table, but the Australia opening batsman Warner slammed (90 not out from 59 balls) made his second half-century of the tournament to seal a seven-wicket victory in Hyderabad.
Ambati Rayudu scored 54 from 49 deliveries in his 100th IPL match and Krunal Pandya smashed a rapid unbeaten 49, but Barinder Sran (3-28) was the pick of the bowlers as Mumbai were restricted to 142-6.
Warner led by example to get the Sunrisers up and running, clubbing four sixes and hitting seven fours in a brilliant innings to consign the Indians to a third defeat from four despite the best efforts of Tim Southee (3-24).
Martin Guptill (2) had an IPL debut to forget for the Indians as he edged Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-17) behind in the first over and the Indians were reduced to 43-3 in the eighth when skipper Rohit Sharma was run-out for five.
Jos Buttler (11) also fell cheaply, but Rayudu was in good touch on his landmark appearance as he cleared the ropes twice and kept the scoreboard ticking before Pandya took only 28 balls to end up just one short of a half-century.
Sran claimed the scalps of Rayudu and Buttler and it was his captain who then put on a show, pacing his innings with perfection as he found the boundary with ease and ran well between the wickets.
Southee sent Shikhar Dhawan (2), Moises Henriques (20) and Eoin Morgan (11) on their way, but there was no dislodging Warner and he sealed victory by hitting Mitchell McClenaghan for two sixes in the 18th over. (Sportsmax.com)