David Miller Thriller: SRH live to tell the tale

David Warner started this game 39 adrift of Ajinkya Rahane’s tournament tally of 461 runs. There’s a healthy rivalry between the Sunrisers Hyderabad opener and his Rajasthan Royals counterpart. Tonight, the man in orange edged ahead, scoring 81 off 52 balls (6X4, 5X6) to reclaim the ‘orange cap’. He was always going to devour this Punjab bowling that looked pedestrian upfront without Mitchell Johnson.

Warner’s was an innings of three phases. He started off in blazing fashion, showed caution after Shikhar Dhawan got out and then threw caution to the wind as Axar Patel returned for his second spell.

Axar’s first over was tight but when he returned with the older ball, he erred in his length. A six off a short delivery took Warner to his half-century; his sixth of the season. And as the left-arm spinner over-corrected and bowled full, Warner smacked him over deep mid-wicket. Warner toyed with Anureet Singh in the 17th over and his dismissal in the first ball of the next over was sort of an anti-climax.

Losing steam 

Not for nothing has the Hyderabad batting unit earned the tag of being a one-man army. Once Warner was dismissed, on the first ball of the 18th over, Hyderabad made just 28 runs in the next 17 balls. The next ball after Warner’s departure, Naman Ojha was run-out. Only two runs were scored in the 18th over. Hyderabad struggled to force the pace in the penultimate over as well, until Anureet bowled a juicy full-toss and allowed KL Rahul to clear the ropes.

Tragic hero

In the end, Ishant Sharma gave David Miller a bear hug. He had just been hit for three sixes and a four by the South African in the final over. Twenty-eight runs were needed off six balls for Punjab to get over the line. Miller took 22 and was crestfallen. Miller played a blinder, 89 not out off 44 balls (2X4, 9X6), and dragged his team to the cusp of an unlikely victory. But it was a very tall order and the left-hander returned a tragic hero. Wriddhiman Saha’s promotion in the batting order ahead of him was beyond logic. Hyderabad looked the favourites before Miller single-handedly took the fight to the opposition.