SRH vs GL: David Warner – master of his own destiny

PHOTOS: SRH ride on Warner’s unbeaten 93, reach IPL final

Now they needed just a run off five balls. Warner bunts the second ball of the last over past the point to let out that customary high-five, as when he accomplishes something really special. And it was most special on every count, right among his absolute best, and we are talking about one of most feared batsmen around, who has achieved pretty much everything in his career, World Cup, Ashes and hundreds across formats, and what not in the cricketing globe.
But seldom with his national team had he to single-handedly orchestrate such a heady, nerve-jangling chase. A cursory glance at the scorecard is revelatory. In fact, it speaks for itself. Besides his No 8 ally Bipul Sharma, no body in that scoresheet managed more than 11.

WATCH: Warner special takes SRH into IPL 2016 final

His fellow opener floundered for a duck; his middle order friends flippantly wasted their wickets away. The required run rate almost always hovered around 12 an over or thereabouts. But Warner didn’t flinch. Warner won’t flinch.
Warner is afterall a bloody-minded Australian. And through singular bloody-mindedness, of course juxtaposed by the savage brawn of his tree-trunk arms, he won a match that they nearly contrived to lose. A knock that was as good as AB de Villiers’s the other day (aside: Gujarat Lions would be wondering why some of the best batsmen inevitably save the best for them?)

As Warner stood in his triumphant pose, helmet and bat raised in elation, his teammates onrushed to swallow him in their huddle. Leading the sprint was wiry young Barinder Sran, who has only Warner to thank for a peaceful sleep.
Until then Sran must have felt like he was the loneliest man on the field, his sense of insulation more figurative than literal. In his lonely perch at long off/fine-leg, he cut a disturbed figure, aimlessly wandering, shrugging his head and flitting through his hair. In his mind, he must have played the costly lapse over and over again. The lapse that forced himself to self-pity, the slip that changed the complexion of the match.

Sran had just returned to his fielding position after being smeared for a boundary and six by Finch.
His colleagues had swathed through Gujarat Lions’s top order and given them the lead-start, Lions, at 80 for 3 now in shambolic mess, waiting to be further unravelled. Finch was their sure-fire way of a turnaround — Lions have won two-thirds of the matches he had crossed 50. But here, he wasn’t to be his side’s saviour.

Or so it seemed when he top-edged Bipul Sharma, the ball whirling into the starless sky and waiting to be devoured in its descent by Sran’s seemingly-assured palms. Naman Ojha, gloves thrown off astray and arms spreadeagled, too had spurted down to the direction of the ball.

He must have given up any hope of catching it himself, for Sran had perfectly stationed beneath where the ball was to fall. From long on, Warner was already sprinting to celebrate. But errrr… momentarily pausing all in their respective motion, Sran let the ball slip through his palms.

Ojha stood muted in disbelief. Warner put his arms on his head. Sran stood static, unsure what to do. It must have been misjudgment or restlessness, for the ball was too long in its steep, downward flight. Or it must have been his greasy fingers or sheer brainfade. But he has missed an instant chance to payback.

That Brendon McCullum departed three balls later must have further aggravated his pangs. Lions were 81 for 4. It could have easily been 81 for 5.

Thereon, every run Finch made was another stab on his wounded, bleeding confidence. A savage reminder of a mistake of his own making. And he made 38 more brutal runs, and screeched another boundary off him in what was to be the shoddy Sran’s final over.

And as if to make a parody out of it, Finch completed his half-century—his fifth of this IPL summer—through a four that nutmegged Sran, who had the lost expression of a centre back who has let a goal right between his legs. It was as churlish as it was comical. That contrasted an otherwise spunky show on the field.

Lions’s Finch-inspired turnaround hurt him as much, as the Victorian combined 51 runs with Jadeja, before the latter and Dwayne Bravo propelled them to a competitive target that wasn’t to be salved by a strip that has the reputation to become sluggish as the match wore on.

And how he dearly missed Mustafizur at the death, with his replacement Trent Boult, getting his first look-in after the T20 World Cup, unable to mask his deficiencies at the death, undoing all the fine work at the start, where he dismissed Suresh Raina, took a nice catch of Ekalavya Dwivedi and then smartly ran out Dinesh Karthik.

But at the death, his extra pace was baneful. Finch cudgeled him for a brace of boundaries; Bravo fetched him for three more, though the last one was not entirely controlled. Consequently, he leaked 26 in his last two.

For most of Sunrisers’ chase, Sran must have kept chewing his nails or lipping a prayer. And one by one when his batting colleagues returned to the pavilion, his already shattered world must have further fallen apart. Sran’s last strain of hope on this floodlit, raucous Kotla night was his skipper himself.

Next best thing to Kohli

Warner, the next best thing to having Virat Kohli in your side, not just in terms of the touch he is in but also in his ability to win matches even in the wake of strife. And Warner, all alone compensated for the frailties of his colleagues. Sran should thank Bipul Sharma, off whose bowling he spilled the catch, too, for without his unflagging support Sunrisers wouldn’t have even lasted the full 20 overs. When the last of their specialist batsmen, Naman Ojha, departed, they had 4.3 more overs to surpass the target. They needed 46 runs as well.

Bipul not just supported him but cushioned him with a few lusty flows of his own. His three sixes were crucial in the context of the match.

The last one, off the last ball of Dwayne Bravo’s penultimate over, ensured they needed just five runs from the last ball, ensuring a nervy but memorable night for them.