Ecstatic Warner credits bowlers for IPL victory against Kings XI

Hyderabad: Jubilant with their third victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) against Kings XI Punjab, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner credited his bowlers for the win and said that he could not have asked them for a better game.

“I’ve said before in the past that, if our bowlers bowl well, it makes my job a lot easier. The patterns that was shown, Fizz (Mustafizur) bowls the last over of the power play to try and give no momentum to other team to go into that middle period. We’ve bowled well, we’ve allowed the ball to swing. The conditions have been good to swing the ball. That’s probably our key up front early,” Warner said after his side’s five-wicket win over David Miller’s side at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here last evening.

Admitting that losing Ashish Nehra due to groin injury was a major setback for his side, Warner said that Barinder Sran came as a great cover in place of the injured paceman.

“Losing Ashish Nehra was a big thing for us, but credit to (Barinder) Sran coming in and playing the way he did. He’s obviously been a good bowler for India in the short career so far. But allowing Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) to swing the ball early, take early wickets, (then) Fizz (Mustafizur) comes in does his job. Moises (Henriques) bowls in the middle period, does exactly what he has to do – (bowls) off-cutters and if he needs to try and swing the ball he can swing the ball, hit the wicket,” the Sunrisers’ skipper, who smashed 59 off 31 balls, insisted.

“We saw that here today that you don’t want to be too predictable with change of pace, because the ball is sitting up, it’s a nice wicket. But our bowlers adapted very well. I couldn’t have asked for a better game from the bowlers,” the Australian batsman added.

Rahman and Henriques bagged two wickets each while Bhuvneshwar chipped in with a wicket as Kings XI were restricted to 143-6 in their stipulated 20 overs.

“In the last three games, he is sort of finding the form that we think Shikhar (Dhawan) can be in. He is hitting the ball well. We are working together again at the top of the order. So it is great when you get the good partnership going on in the top of the order. We know in this tournament one good partnership between two batters can take the game away from their oppositions,” Warner said.

“And at the moment we got that partnership going. So that’s the key when we are bowling to break the partnership and when we are batting to keep the partnership, Warner said about sharing a 90- run partnership with Dhawan (45) for opening wicket as the hosts chased down the target of 144 runs with 13 balls to spare,” he added.

Surisers, which are currently standing third in the IPL graph, will play their next game against Rising Pune Supergiants at the same venue on Tuesday. (ANI)