New Delhi: Hyderabad Sunrisers’ captain David Warner had warm words of praise after his team, especially the fast bowlers, made sure of a 22-run win over two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Kotla here on Wednesday to give them a crack to qualifying for Saturday’s final in Bengaluru. Defending 162 at a smallish ground, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran and Moises Henriques, and missing local boy Ashish Nehra, took six of the eight KKR wickets to fall, Said the delighted Warner later, “It does, it makes me very happy. That experience of Nehra was a big miss for us. Obviously he knows this wicket very well and his experience is second to none.
“The guys have stepped up though, and Barinder Sran has been bowling very well. He is still learning, he is still a bit green, but he is always willing to learn. I think a big credit goes to Bhuvnesh because he has been helping him a lot. He has been talking to him (Sran) day in and day out about what plans to have to different players. He is learning.
“That is the good thing about this team. Everyone is still willing to learn while we are still playing. Everyone is adapting as we are going along in this tournament. But yeah fantastic efforts today by the bowlers, and obviously towards the end, Bipul Sharma hitting two sixes really helped us to get to a good total. “The (other) pleasing thing from my point of view is the way we fielded today. We have been pretty sloppy the whole tournament. But the way the guys came out today and took good catches minus Fizz (Mu-stafizur Rahman dropping one catch). But I was very pleased with the ground fielding today, that was exceptional from us.”
On the toss, and which way he would have gone, the Aussie powerhouse admitted, “Before the toss, I was in two minds if I won it whether to bat or bowl. I have always felt that playing here in the past, when you get good runs on the board and put pressure on the opposition, it is hard to get going. “That’s how we felt today when we were batting. We talked about not losing wickets in clumps, and then I played the shot like I did and then let two new
batters come in, I was really disappointed with how I got out.”
Speaking about the two-paced Kotla track, the Eagles captain pointed out that it had been very different of the day. “I have played here in the past where it has been pretty low and slow and where there has been no grass on the square. I feel they have done a very good job here. “It’s a wicket that suits, you look at Jason holder and Morne Morkel, the length they bowled was very hard to hit. You know, tall bounce, hitting the wicket, sort of skidding on bail high.
Very hard to get going and trying to hit and have release shots. They built pressure. “I am a believer of runs on the board in these kind of games when you see a total of 160, you can be in two minds as a batting unit. You can either get off to a good start and have positive intent, or you can try and get through the first six and set a platform to the end.”
