Warner’s presence pushes Dhawan to regain lost touch
Shikhar Dhawan continued his rich form in the IPL this season with a 48-ball 73 as Sunrisers Hyderabad clinched a comfortable 26-run victory over Kings XI Punjab to pick up 11 points from nine matches and stay third on the table.
Dhawan, who has already aggregated 312 runs this season and is the fourth highest run-getter in the tournament, was supported by his David Warner, who’s second on the list.
Warner scored 51 before being cleaned up by Kings XI Punjab skipper Glenn Maxwell, but the duo ensured their side got a good opening platform, from which they reached 207, batting first.
“If we’re talking about today I think we were playing more aggressive cricket and that was our plan,” Dhawan told iplt20.com. “In the last couple of games, we were playing well but our run-rate was a bit low. So that’s when we decided to go and play our shots and backed our abilities and it’s been good.”
Dhawan said that he and Warner knows each other’s game really well and that helps in the middle. “I’m used to playing (with) David Warner now because I’ve been playing with him for two-three seasons now,” added Dhawan. “We know each other’s game and our running between the wickets is also very good. Today we both were attack ing from both the ends. Usually when David takes on the bowling I sit back and the same goes with him. It was a good wicket and we both wanted to make it big and that’s what happened.”
Dhawan also brushed aside the usual right-lef combination advantage, stat ing it depended more on the batsmen than their style.
“It doesn’t matter if the bats men are right-handers or left handers… If they’re playing well it gets a bit difficult for the bowl ers,” he said.
“They even got on an off-spin ner but we were in such a good touch that we played well. So i depends on a particular day. O course, with a left-right combina tion, the bowler has to change his line and length and that creates a problem for him. But if he’s get ting hammered from both ends then it is a bigger problem.”