The IPL 2016 final on Sunday at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was set to be Virat Kohli’s night of coronation and the night when Royal Challengers Bangalore would win their maiden trophy in the history of this Indian T20 extravaganza. With 919 runs under his belt and superhero like companionship (AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle), Virat Kohli was looking unassailable and unstoppable. However, one man, the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad – David Warner – had a script of his own.
If Virat Kohli can be described as Superman for his performances in IPL 2016, David Warner has been like the Batman – relentless, inspiring, tactful and masterly. The Australian southpaw remained on the heels of his Indian counterpart throughout the tournament and due to the low-profile nature of his side, went largely unnoticed for a significant part of it.
Also, Kohli might have won the Orange Cap and other individual plaudits but Warner took home what the former wanted the most – the IPL 2016 trophy – and deservedly so. Here are five reasons why David Warner was as incredible as Virat Kohli in IPL 2016.
#1 Prolific run-scoring
Virat Kohli took home a lot of individual honours and the biggest of them was the coveted Orange Cap, which he got for scoring 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08 and a strike in excess of 152. David Warner was not far behind and compiled a remarkable total of 848 runs with a strike rate of 151.42 and an average of 60.
Without taking anything away from Kohli, it can be safely said David Warner batted in tougher conditions as compared to the former. The track at Chinnaswamy is a belter where the par score is in excess of 180 and the ball comes on to the bat fairly nicely. On the other hand, Warner batted on a track (Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Hyderabad) that is more bowler-friendly and is located in a ground with bigger boundaries.
#2 Leading a team without superstars
If IPL was a league of superheroes from every universe, you could safely call Royal Challengers Bangalore its Avengers with names like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and of course, Virat Kohli in their ranks. David Warner, on the other hand, could aptly be characterised as a superhero leading a team of honest cops and an old one (Ashish Nehra).
Having the likes of de Villiers and Gayle on his side was certainly an advantage that Kohli enjoyed. Warner, using whatever limited resources he had, channelised their energies and inspired players like Mustafizur Rahman, Naman Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ben Cutting and Barinder Sran to perform the way they did. With this trophy in his bag, Warner has staked a claim to the T20 stewardship of his national side.
#3 Never say die attitude
If cricket is anything to go by, ‘Never say die attitude’ is not an attitude for Australians but a gene they’re born with. The Sunrisers skipper is no different in that regard. Time and again in his Australian career, Warner has shown that he is a tough customer who doesn’t believe in throwing in the towel even in the most adverse of the situations. Warner not only brought that attitude to the tournament but instilled his team with the same mantra.
In all the three matches they played over the period of five days to clinch the title, the team looked down and out by the 35th over of the match. If against Kolkata, Bhuvneshwar’s wicket of Manish Pandey in the 17th over, turned the match on its head, then Warner’s 93* with Bipul Sharma lifted them out of a hole to book a place in the final.
Once again in the final, the match looked like a lost cause for Warner and Co at the halfway mark as Gayle and Kohli were flaying the Hyderabad bowling. But Warner never gave up and luck shined on the Australian when Cutting got rid of Gayle to open the floodgates. And the rest, as they say, is history.
#4 Coming good when it mattered the most
In cricket, what differentiates the good from the great is that the great will always rise up to the occasion when it matters the most. While Warner had a good season with the bat already, the cherry on the top of the cake came in the form of his 93* in the do-or-die qualifier against Gujarat Lions. Seeing wickets tumble at the other end, Warner did a Kohli when he held one end up to orchestrate a jailbreak with lower order batsman Bipul Sharma to drive his team to the final.
Warner didn’t disappoint even in the final despite the huge burden of expectations and following a sedate start launched into his one-time opening partner Shane Watson and didn’t look back. With 69 runs at a strike rate of 181, Warner won a mini-battle against his opposite number Kohli who scored 54 at the strike rate of 154.
5. Performing in foreign conditions
David Warner had earlier struggled in the subcontinent in Test matches and had a forgettable T20 World Cup to boot. But Warner conquered all his demons to turn in one of the best batting performances in the history of Indian Premier League in 2016. Had it not been for Kohli, his 848 runs would have got him the Orange Cap in any other season by a country mile.
While comparisons between him and Virat Kohli are as useless as inevitable, one can’t discount the argument that the 848 runs Warner accrued came on pitches and in conditions entirely different from the ones he is used to playing on. Although he is yet to shine in the longest format in the subcontinent, one can say that with this superlative season he definitely has turned a corner for himself in his career.
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