IPL a fantastic platform to build bridges, says Warner

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner thanked India captain Virat Kohli for congratulating him after he struck a fine century against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday stating that the tournament is a fantastic platform to build bridges between international cricketers.

“It’s always great to get that credit. Us as international cricketers, we galvanise in this tournament. You know there’s international cricket and there are boundaries that you try not to cross but

when we come together in the IPL and step on the field; it’s competitive and for that we respect each individual,” Warner told former India batsman VVS Laxman in an interactive session after the match for iplt20.com. “When someone does well, it’s not hard to send a congratulatory message. We always credit each other because what it’s about is entertaining the crowd and the fans and helping them keep watch the great game of ours.”

The Australian vice-captain scored a terrific 59-ball 126 to help his side set a target of 210 for Kolkata Knight Riders. This wasn’t just their highest score in the IPL, it was also the most put up by any side against the former champions. Backed by a quality spin attack in the form of Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in their ranks, KKR have been one of the better performing sides in this edition of the IPL.

“When you have quality spin bowling, you’ve got to have a gameplan. I try and take those risks and back my strengths and the reverse sweep’s one of my strengths and I thought to have a clear plan to play it when I did and then tried to coming down the wicket and put more pressure on him,” Warner added.

“So, I tried to make him bowl faster into the wicket, some of those balls did, some did not but that’s the gameplan you need to have… You’ve got to think on your feet when you’ve worldclass bowlers.”