#ThisDayThatYear: David Warner leads SRH to maiden IPL title
On this day in 2016, Sunrisers Hyderabad clinched their maiden Indian Premier League title. They defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in a high-scoring encounter. SRH skipper David Warner led from the front throughout the season, having tormented the RCB bowling line-up in the final. His counterpart Virat Kohli too hogged the limelight with his ground-breaking runs tally. Here is how the action unfolded.
Batting first, SRH were off to a flier with openers David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan crossing the 50-run mark in the powerplay overs. Although the latter was removed for 28, Warner (69) continued with his exploits. Yuvraj Singh (38) and Ben Cutting (39*) took the onus thereafter. SRH managed to rack up 208/7 after 20 overs. Chris Jordan claimed three scalps for RCB.
RCB openers Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli gave a run for the money to SRH bowlers in the first half. The duo propelled them to 114 before the former departed. Kohli followed him in the 13th over, while AB de Villiers was dismissed as well, after an over. The rest of batsmen succumbed to pressure as RCB fell short by 8 runs eventually.
Ben Cutting, who was also named the Player of the Match, turned out to be the differential for SRH. His unbeaten 39 off 15 balls was studded with 4 sixes and 3 fours. The Australian all-rounder scored at an astonishing strike-rate of 260.00. In the bowling segment, he snapped up two wickets after having conceded 35 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad became the sixth franchise to have laid hands on the coveted IPL trophy. However, RCB captain Virat Kohli stole the show, having aggregated a record 973 runs in the tournament. The staggering record is yet to be broken.
