Sarfaraz’s late flurry proved crucial for RCB: Warner

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner feels the late flurry by young Sarfaraz Khan in death overs proved crucial as Royal Challenger Bangalore notched up a 45-run win in their IPL match.

Warner also praised Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for their 157-run stand.

“They (Kohli and AB) played fantastic and the innings at the end (by Sarfaraz) was crucial one for them to romp home,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference at Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Warner praised Sarfaraz for taking the game away from the visitors with his array of strokes, and also blamed himself for not speaking to the bowler to make amends when the RCB lad smashed 28 runs in the 19^th over.

“We know how he (Sarfaraz) plays. He got four full-tosses and that works in his favour. I am not putting blame on anyone, may be we could have changed a pace a little bit, not bowl same balls, but it was my fault as well, I should have been speaking to the bowler,” he said.

Warner said because of Ashish Nehra’s absence early on, he wanted to use Mustafizur Rahman in death overs, but Sarafraz sabotaged the plan.

“I couldn’t do that because a bowler (Nehra) went down, and that really hurts and makes you think on your feets. I tried to work out what I am going to do in last six overs, but we got a wicket which helped us a little bit, but Sarfaraz came in and played a fantastic knock,” he said.

“The only disappointing thing for me was a bowler went down and then in last four overs, they got 63 runs and one of those overs went for 28 runs. We didn’t execute our plans as we wanted to, but obviously we have to try and take positives out of it,” he added.

On chasing down a 228-run target, Warner said at least one among the top four batsman needed to get a century, but they could not materialise because of losing wickets in clutch after his departure.

“I put my hand up - and it was required at least one of us among top four batters gets a hundred, but none of us were able to do that, and lost wickets in a clutch. We had a great start, but after my dismissal in 9^th over, the run-rate increased and it became hard for incumbent batsmen to cope with the pressure,” he said.