David Warner leads from front with unbeaten 93 to steer Hyderabad into Sunday's final
When Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner chose to field first after winning the toss on Friday, he was more than sure about his batters on this slow and low Kotla track. And, he did so despite having defended 162 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the same venue in Wednesday's Eliminator.
In the end, Warner may have had a few bumpy rides but then he made sure that his team reached its maiden Indian Premier League final by defeating Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions by four wickets. This was not before this 29-year-old Australian produced an unbeaten 93 to rescue his team from a disastrous start.
In the end, Sunrisers chased down Lions' total of 162/7 with four deliveries to spare.
Warner's decision to chase at Kotla was obviously dependent on his solid batting line-up of Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh and Deepak Hooda. But it was Bipul Sharma's little cameo towards the end (11-ball 27*) that tilted the tide in Sunrisers' favour.
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Dhawan was unlucky to have got out to a direct hit at the bowler's end at the start of second iver, then Henriques, Yuvraj and Hooda could hardly offer any such excuse. Henriques was guilty of not moving his feet off Dwayne Smith's short and wide delivery to offer a straight catch to covers. Yuvraj, after his match-winning knock of 44 in the last game, failed to reach to the pitch of Shivil Kaushik's chinaman delivery and miscued the lofted drive straight to long-off.
And, when Hooda edged one behind at the total of 75 in the 12th over, Warner knew he only had only himself to count if his team has to enter the title round. Bipul proved to be a surprise after the last two recognised batsmen, Ben Cutting and Naman Ojha, failed to stay longer at the middle.
For Raina also, Warner was the last hurdle in their title hunt. Praveen Kumar did throw some verbal volleys towards Warner in his desperate attempt to unsettle him. But the seasoned Australian campaigner only replied with his bat.
And, when Bipul picked Dhawal Kulkarni (18th over) and Dwayne Bravo (19th over) for special treatment by lifting his wide full toss over and slower one, respectively, for sixes, it was the beginning of an end for Raina's team.
Warner finally returned the 'goodies' back to Kumar by despatching his fuller length delivery through covers to level the scores. And a single off the next was good enough to settle the scores, thus ending Lions' roaring run in the tournament.
Earlier, it was some lusty hitting by Aaron Finch (32-ball 50) towards the end of the innings for Sunrisers to get to a competitive total. Finch, along with Dwayne Bravo, scored at almost 11 runs an over in the final stretch to help his team reach this total on a wicket that made batting a bit difficult in the beginning.
This came after Lions' experiment to send young Eklavya Dwivedi in to open the innings came a cropper. Retired New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum (32) and Dinesh Karthik (26) did stable the ship with a 44-run partnership before tragedy hit Lions as Karthik ran himself out while trying to take a single towards short third man Trent Boult.
And, when the explosive McCullum too fell in the 12th over, the Lions were staring down the barrel in a crucial do-or-die game. However, Finch had other ideas in his mind and together with Bravo helped Lions gather 79 off the final seven overs.
The Australian right-hander hit two sixes and seven fours to register his fifth century of the tournament, even though his team kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
shekhar.luthra@dnaindia.net
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