Press Trust of India
Bangalore, April 13: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner stated here after the game Tuesday that the late flurry by young Sarfaraz Khan in the death overs proved crucial to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) victory. Warner also praised Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for their 157-run stand.
“They (Kohli and AB) played fantastic and the innings at the end (by Sarfaraz) was crucial one for them to romp home,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference at Chinnaswamy stadium here.
“We know how he (Sarfaraz) plays. He got four full tosses and that worked in his favour. I am not putting blame on anyone, maybe we could have changed the pace a little bit, not bowl same type of deliveries, but it was my fault as well. I should have been speaking to the bowler (Bhuvneshwar Kumar),” he pointed out.
Warner said because of Ashish Nehra’s absence early on, he wanted to use Mustafizur Rahman in death overs, but Sarafraz sabotaged the plan.
“Missing Nehra at the death was crucial. It affected our plans and it reflected on our bowling as we gave away 63 runs in the last four overs,” Warner lamented. “Just shows we didn’t execute our plans properly.”
On sending Eoin Morgan at No. 6, Warner said the team needed someone like him to finish off the game, but that did not happen as the batters failed to draft a good partnership.