Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner has credited his bowlers and fielders for their comfortable 22-run win over two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL Eliminator at Delhi on Wednesday.
After posting 162 for eight, riding on Yuvraj Singh’s 30-ball 44, SRH came up with a fine bowling and fielding effort to restrict KKR to 140 for 8.
SRH now progress to IPL’s Qualifier 2 for the first ever time since making their debut in the 2013 edition of the tournament.
SRH will now take on Gujarat Lions (GL) in the all-important Qualifier 2 on Friday and a win would pave way for a maiden entry into the summit clash of the T20 league.
“The bowlers have shown fantastic appetite. The experience of injured (Ashish) Nehra was a big miss for us. His experience is second to none. But the guys have stepped up. Barinder Sran has been bowling really well. He is still learning and big credit goes to Bhuvneswar Kumar because he has been helping him (Sran) a lot day in and day out. That’s the good thing about this team that everyone is willing to learn,” Warner said praising his pacers.
“The pleasing thing from my point of view is the way we fielded in the match. We were pretty sloppy throughout the tournament. But the guys came out and took some very good catches. I was very pleased with our ground fielding,” he said at the post-match press conference.
Warner though feels Sunrisers were some runs short after being put into bat by KKR.
“I thought we were probably 10-15 runs short. Before the toss I was in two minds whether to bat or bowl. I always felt playing here in the past, when you get good runs on the board and put pressure on the opposition it’s always hard to get going. That’s how we felt when we were batting,” he said.
Warner also praised young KKR spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who returned with figures of 3 for 35, to deny SRH a big score.
“We talked about not losing in clumps. But I was really disappointed the way I got out. Yadav bowled well on the turning track. But it’s always hard for a young bowler to come and bowl to an experienced player like Yuvi. He is going to be a good spinner in the years to come definitely,” he concluded.
