David Warner notched up his eighth half century of the season to end his Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign this season in style.
Playing in front of their home crowd, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 212/6 in 20 overs against Kings XI Punjab in a key match on Monday.
Warner, who is by far the tournament’s highest scorer, smashed a typically belligerent 81 off 56 balls, his innings laced with seven fours and two sixes.
The Aussie cricketer will leave for Australia to be part of their World Cup camp after this game. He will be the second big name to exit the Sunrisers Hyderabad camp before the business end of the tournament after Jonny Bairstow departed to join his England team-mates last week.
It was a dream start for the orange army as they raced to 53/0 in four overs, and then 77/0 after Powerplay, both scores the fastest this season. Warner and Saha shared a 76-run opening wicket stand before the India Test wicketkeeper edged a delivery by M. Ashwin to Simran Singh behind the stumps.
Pandey and Warner continued the carnage, combining for a 82-run stand for the second wicket. Just when it looked like they would post a score well past 200, R. Ashwin snared two wickets in the 16th over, first removing Pandey and then accounting for Warner.
While Pandey was taken at short fine leg by Mohammed Shami, Warner was taken at point by Mujeeb after Ashwin came round the wicket.
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