No Warner, no worries: Sunrisers win again

Friday, 13 April 2018:

DAVID WARNER during the Australian national mens cricket team training session at PPC Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa.
DAVID WARNER during the Australian national mens cricket team training session at PPC Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa.


Sunrisers Hyderabad have continued to shake off the absence of suspended captain David Warner to make it two from two in the Indian Premier League.

Warner, who skippered Hyderabad to their first IPL crown in 2016, had his $2.4 million contract torn up for his part in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal last month.

Things weren't quite as simple as their opening win over Rajasthan Royals, however, with Thursday's one-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians going down to the final ball.

Sunrisers captain Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to field and the decision looked sound when Aussie quick Billy Stanlake removed Mumbai opener Rohit Sharma for 11 in the second over.

Wickets fell consistently for the visitors, who limped to 8-147 from their 20 overs led by 29 from West Indian batsman Evin Lewis. Former fringe Australian international Ben Cutting fell for 9.

Stanlake, Sandeep Sharma and Siddarth Kaul all took two wickets.

In reply Wriddhiman Saha (22) and Shikhar Dhawan (45) put on 62 for the first wicket and Hyderabad were cruising at 5-136 before losing four wickets in a stunning nine-ball collapse.

Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman split the damage but it wasn't enough as Stanlake (5 not out) held his nerve to send the penultimate ball of the innings to the fence and secure the win.

"It was one of those games that comes down to the wire. At the half way stage I thought it was going to be scrappy because the wicket was slowing up. The last ball can go either way so it was nice to win," Williamson said.

For his opposite Sharma, a second straight final-ball one-wicket loss was hard to take

"It is still early days," he said. "Being on the receiving end for the second time is tough to digest. It wasn't a good enough total and our batsmen should have done better."






AAP