Staying hungry and self-belief is the mantra: David Warner

His side virtually assured of a berth in the play-offs in IPL 9 after beating Kings XI Punjab today, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner let out the secret behind his team’s success, saying it’s all about staying hungry and having self-belief.

Asked about the the team’s plan for the next two games, Warner replied with a gentle smile, “obviously, to win,”

“We are very excited and happy to go through, but for us it is about winning. It’s (winning) is the key to have momentum in this format. We need to keep winning, obviously to finish in the top two, that is our goal and that is our focus,” he said at the post-match conference after his team registered a seven-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab.

“We have set our sights on the next game, we go to Raipur and play against Delhi. In last game, they beat us as we did not play particularly well. We have to play at our best to beat Delhi and they could be a potential contender in the finals,” said the Australian.

Asked about the mantra which has made Sunrisers such a solid-looking outfit this season, Warner, who struck a half-century today, said, “We have really worked hard this year, we have stayed hungry and we have belief in ourselves to go out there and play the perfect game.”

“Couple of games didn’t go our way, then we got into the winning streak, had a bad game and then we won again. So, at the moment we have to keep trying playing our best game.”

After KXIP elected to bat first in today’s game, Warner said he was a bit disappointed with the way his side bowled.

“I thought they got 20 runs too many,” he said. He, however, praised the way Deepak Hooda (34 of 22 balls) and Yuvraj Singh (42 of 24 balls) batted today.

“We saw today and that is the quality he brings to his team in the middle period. He played with a clear mind,” Warner said about Yuvraj.

He also praised the role played by Deepak Hooda and Ben Cutting (18 of 11 balls) and said with the kind of talent and self-belief his players have, “that’s what we are about”.

“It is about not being complacent and about moving forward and keep continuing to play good cricket. We can work on a lot of other things, with our bowling, with our batting.

“Sometimes, when we fall behind, we rush things and I felt today that batters assessed the conditions well. I did not feel that any player felt pressure, they just went out there and executed their skill,” he said.

About Ashish Nehra’s condition after he walked off the field with some trouble in his right leg, Warner said, “All I know about it is that there was a tendon issue, he is going to be assessed by medical staff and I think there will be a press release about that (about Nehra’s condition)”. 

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