David Warner is clearly back to his brilliant best in the Indian Premier League, lighting up Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai as the Delhi Capitals smashed the Punjab Kings.
Coming off his worst IPL campaign last season, Warner has looked in fine touch so far for Delhi, notching three consecutive half-centuries.
“Form is temporary, class is permanent,” Warner said after the match.
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Warner is clearly enjoying his change of scenery in the IPL, joining Delhi after he was sensationally dropped during last year’s campaign at Sunrisers Hyderabad – despite starting the season as captain and being a fixture in the team since 2014.
Because of COVID-19 concerns – including Warner’s Delhi and national teammate Mitchell Marsh being sidelined with the virus – the match was moved at the eleventh hour from Pune to Mumbai.
Delhi captain Rishabh Pant said before the match that the events of the past couple of days had been “unfortunate”, but that they would remain vigilant.
“We’ll find our strength in each other, and hopefully our players who are infected with COVID will be fine,” Pant said.
After bowling the Kings out for 115, there was only going to be one result. But Warner and opening partner Prithvi Shaw left nothing to doubt, blasting 83 in 6.3 overs before Shaw departed for 40 off 20 balls.
Warner would finish with an unbeaten 60 from 30 balls, as the Kings failed to take another wicket.
https://twitter.com/CricCrazyJohns/status/1516824354981498881
“I think the bowlers did a fantastic job and made it easier for us,” Warner said.
“We had to go hard in the powerplay during the chase. It was a different surface compared to the last night, but credit to our bowlers. Was grateful that we were able to get out of our rooms and play tonight.”
In the process of his innings, Warner became just the second player to record 1000 runs against a single opponent (Rohit Sharma has scored 1015 runs against Kolkata).
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