IPL 2019: Jonny Bairstow, David Warner Create History

Jonny Bairstow has been an absolute revelation in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. The England star, who was bought at his base price by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last auction, has formed a formidable partnership with David Warner at the top of the order. On Sunday, the two starred again as Sunrisers thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets to register their fifth win of the season.

Asked to bat first, the Knight Riders started brightly and had raced away to 42 in just 15 balls before Khaleel Ahmed castled Sunil Narine. It completely changed the course of the game as the Knight Riders just could not recover from it. They soon found themselves four down for just 73 before Chris Lynn and Rinku Singh steadied the ship. But the Knight Riders eventually ended on a modest 159 for 8.

Let's do this once again, #OrangeArmy ?

Describe this duo in one word ?

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— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 21, 2019

David Warner and Jonny Bairstow then came out all guns blazing with the bat. They helped Sunrisers race away to 72 for no loss inside the powerplay and did not stop the onslaught later too. Warner and Bairstow added 131 runs to the board before Yarra Prithviraj dismissed the former for 67. With just 29 runs needed from 8 overs, Bairstow and Kane Williamson helped Sunrisers reach the target with 30 balls to spare. Bairstow remained unbeaten on 80.

“The way they got off to that start, the bowlers did well to peg them back. Huge credit to our guys, it could’ve got away from us. Could’ve got to 200. When we came out to bat, the pitch slowed up. Expected it to be slightly quicker than that tonight. Don’t want to start any rumours. It’s good fun. He’s a great bloke to bat with. We run well between the wickets. When he gets off to start like that, it’s just a case of giving him the strike,” said Jonny Bairstow after the match.

Another solid Warner-Bairstow partnership fires us to a convincing 9-wicket win over KKR at home!

Hope you enjoyed the show, #OrangeArmy ?#RiseWithUs #SRHvKKR @davidwarner31 @jbairstow21 pic.twitter.com/J9NV6o1Zkk

— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 21, 2019

And with their latest partnership at the top of the order, Warner and Bairstow became the highest-scoring opening pair in an IPL season surpassing the previous record set by the Sunrisers pair of Warner and Dhawan in 2016. What is even more incredible is that Warner and Bairstow achieved the feat in only their ninth IPL innings together. It took the pair just nine innings to overhaul the previous record of 731 runs in 17 innings in 2016.

Here is the list of most runs by an opening pair in a season (IPL):

733* Warner – Bairstow (2019)
731 Warner – Dhawan (2016)
655 Warner – Dhawan (2017)
646 Warner – Dhawan (2015)