Led by an inspiring captain’s knock from David Warner, Sunrisers Hyderabad emerged as the new champions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in front of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s home crowd by eight runs.
It was a dramatic end to the ninth edition of the IPL after Royal Challengers’ opener Chris Gayle almost blew away Hyderabad’s hopes of winning the title through a whirlwind knock of 76 runs off 38 balls with four boundaries and eight sixes. It was also a sad end for Kohli, who despite winning the orange cap for the maximum runs, failed to win the cup for Bangalore. His fighting 54 runs off 35 balls with five boundaries and two sixes went in vain.
Victorious Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner with all humility hailed Virat Kohli as a “great leader” as he termed it a total “team effort.”
“It was a fantastic team achievement. To lead this side and the support from the players, me pulling my weight with the runs, it has been a hard journey. It’s a team effort. To have the perfect game, we needed to gel. For us, the key was team effort all the way,” Warner said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Asked about the target, Warner said: “Look we knew, we had to get 200. Virat Kohli, what a great leader! I can’t take it away from him. He set the benchmark this season. We knew we had to win three straight games. To win in Bangalore, we were underdogs. But, we batted well, bowled well and fielded well. In 24 hours, I will be off to the Caribbean.”
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