SunRisers Hyderabad captain David Warner was as stunned as others after Kings XI Punjab snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the IPL 2020 clash on Saturday. The loss meant that the road to playoffs became quite difficult for SRH with KXIP and KKR firmly ahead in contention of making it.
David Warner and Jonny Bairstow stitched together an opening stand of 56 runs to give the side a good start. Vijay Shankar played an important cameo from there on while other failed to make major contributions to the tally with KXIP bowlers doing exceptionally well to restrict the side to a low total.
After the start we got, we took our foot off the pedal: David Warner
Asked to bat, KXIP off to a decent start with KL Rahul and Mandeep Singh stitching a 37-run stand. The absence of Mayank Agarwal, however, was clearly stinging the Punjab outfit. Chris Gayle later chipped in with 20 runs off as many deliveries while Nicholas Pooran remained unbeaten on 32 runs off 28 balls to take KXIP to 126/7. Warner said that the loss does hurts as his bowlers did a terrific job but put the foot off the pedal after the good start.
“Yeah it does (hurt a lot). Our bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict them. After the start we got, we took our foot off the pedal. Felt on that wicket it was going to get tougher once the spin came into it. For us it was about trying to apply pressure upfront, negate the swing bowling, but obviously we didn’t get across the line,” Warner said.
“They bowled well with the new ball (his bowlers). Didn’t get all the wickets upfront but we brought it back well. Today our bowlers executed the plans well, very happy with them. Just have to forget this game and move forward,” he added.
SRH currently have eight points in the points table after 11 matches.