One good partnership is key in IPL: Warner

Hyderabad, Apr 24 (PTI) Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner feels the key to winning matches in Twenty20 cricket, especially IPL, is one good partnership at the top.

“We know in this tournament, it takes one good partnership between two batters, when they rain that can take the game away from the opposition,” Warner said after guiding his team to a five-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab here last night.

“At the moment, we got our partnership going, RCB got their partnership going, Kolkata got their partnership going.  That’s the key, when we are bowling, to break that partnership and when we are batting, to keep our partnership going,” he said at the post-match press conference.

The match saw a 90-run opening partnership between Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. Warner praised Dhawan, who returned to form after an unimpressive run initially.

“At the moment, in the last two games, he is sort of finding the form that we know Shikhar can be in. He is hitting the ball well. We are working together again at the top of the order. When you can get a good partnership going at the top of the order, it helps a lot,” Warner said.

He, however, said either he or Dhawan should have batted to finish the innings as well.

“If I am being critical, me or Shikhar should have been there till the end. Because, last game (against Gujarat Lions), we did that,” he said.

The captain complimented the SRH bowlers, including Mustafizur Rahman, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Moises Henriques for their showing in the match against KXIP, though the team missed the services of seasoned Ashish Nehra due to injury.

“I have said before, in the past, that if our bowlers bowl well, it makes our job easier. Our bowlers adapted very well. I could not have asked for a better game from the bowlers... They did a fantastic job,” he said.

“The pleasing thing for me was the fact that Bhuvi bowled very well last game. Fizzy bowled very well this game.  Hopefully, (Barinder) Sran can bowl even better than what he is bowling now. He is bowling fantastic upfront. They are gelling well together,” Warner said.

The team would try hard to win all its remaining home matches, Warner said.

“We are taking small steps. We try and pride ourselves in winning every game at home.”

He said Nehra is recovering from the injury and Yuvraj Singh’s status could be known in the first week of May.