Warner leads Sunrisers to maiden title

Warner, Gayle, Kohli – big guns fired on the big stage, as death bowling helped Sunrisers choke Royal Challengers to bag first IPL title

The result: Sunrisers Hyderabad 7-208 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 7-200 by eight runs to win the 2016 IPL

The Aussie pack: David Warner continued his run-charge at the top of the order, after winning the toss and electing to bat. In no time, he helped himself to a ninth half-century this season. He brought up his fifty off 24 balls and then proceeded to get 69 off 38, including eight fours and three sixes, laying the foundation for an imposing total.

WATCH: Cutting, Warner shine on IPL's biggest stage

While the Sunrisers did lose momentum after Warner fell in the 14th over, it was Ben Cutting who produced a sensational all-round performance to elevate his side. First he smacked an unbeaten 39 off 15 in the death, with three fours and four sixes, to help Hyderabad past the 200 mark. And then returned 2-35 from four overs to help choke Bangalore’s chase.

Meanwhile, Shane Watson (0-61 from four overs and 11 off 9 later) and Moises Henriques (4 off 5 to go with 0-40 from three overs) had quiet evenings compared to their compatriots, with the former’s bowling in the death hurting Royal Challengers immensely.

Thanks so much to the @RCBTweets fans for their incredible support throughout the IPL. Gave it my best but not good enough tonight.#sosorry — Shane Watson (@ShaneRWatson33) May 29, 2016

The battle of two captains: Warner and Virat Kohli lit up this IPL season with both their leadership abilities and mighty willows. On Sunday, it was a clash of captains as much as the other big names also involved. Leading from the front, both looked at their strengths to get on top – Warner batting first and Kohli happy to chase.

Thus, it was no surprise when Warner took his run-tally past the 800 mark. While he didn’t score a single hundred during the season, the powerful left-hander let off enough steam from a disappointing World T20 campaign to finish with 848 runs from 17 matches.

Kohli scored his seventh fifty of the tournament, 54 off 35, to take his tally to an astonishing 973 from 16 games, including four hundreds. But neither could do enough with the bat alone and it eventually came down to how their teammates responded.

A mini-collapse: The Sunrisers enjoyed the perfect start, not losing a wicket in the powerplays as Warner and Shikhar Dhawan (28 off 25) put on 63 off 40. They benefited from some dubious bowling options deployed by Bangalore, as Chris Gayle (0-24) and Watson leaked runs. Despite losing a couple wickets thereafter, Hyderabad were placed perhaps where they wanted to be – Warner still batting and 2-97 at the halfway mark.

But the skipper couldn’t carry on, mistiming one off S Aravind (2-30) to short third man and the Sunrisers’ run-rate slowed down to a trickle. Yuvraj Singh (38 off 23) had held the middle order together with a vintage innings, but at 6-158 in the 18th over it didn’t look enough to stop Bangalore’s batsmen. Then a storm hit the Chinnaswamy stadium that took the partisan crowd by complete surprise.

Cutting loose: For his first five deliveries, Cutting didn’t give any inkling of what was to come next. Instead, he had misjudged a call and been party to Naman Ojha’s run-out. It could have been costly, but he more than made up for it, taking 10 off the 18th over. Chris Jordan (3-45) managed to keep it tight, but Cutting just latched on to Watson’s final over, smacking 23 with one four and three sixes. The first of those big hits landed outside the stadium, a monstrous hit of 117 metres.

Congrats @davidwarner31 and the @SunRisers 2 best teams in the final and what a great final it was. @Cuttsy31 MOM for mine. #IPLfinal — Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) May 29, 2016

The Gayle storm: With just the one fifty in nine previous innings, the big-hitting West Indies opener had experienced an unusual IPL season. But he chose this night to bring out his best. More importantly, he made the 200-plus total appear meagre as Bangalore raced to 50 off 28 deliveries and were placed at 0-59 at the end of the powerplay.

At first, Kohli was content watching from the other end, rotating the strike at every opportunity. Before long, he started to play shots too and it was absolute mayhem as the Royal Challengers crossed the 100-mark with 21 coming in the ninth over. Gayle smacked 76 off 38, with four fours and eight sixes, as he put on 114 off 63 with Kohli while the Sunrisers appeared clueless in defence of their total.

Turning point: Cutting provided the breakthrough in the 11th over, a diving Bipul Sharma (1-17) at third man giving relief as he held on. Yet, they still had to contend with Kohli and AB de Villiers. However, the duo could only manage 26 for the second wicket as Kohli dragged the ball onto his stumps in the 13th over. Six balls later, de Villiers mistimed Sharma to Henriques who ran back from mid-off to complete the catch that turned the game.

The choke: Bangalore went from 0-114 to 3-148, and lost all their big guns in the process. Warner’s ploy of holding back his best bowlers worked like a charm with 47 needed off the final 24 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-25) and Mustafizur Rahman (1-37) returned at the death to squeeze the scoring, as the game got away from RCB, with none of their batsmen beyond Gayle and Kohli scoring more than 18.

The stat: Warner’s half-century off 24 deliveries was the equal-fastest in an IPL final, joining Suresh Raina (off 24 against Mumbai Indians in 2010) and ahead of Rohit Sharma (off 25 against Chennai Super Kings in 2015). Also, Kohli became the highest scorer in IPL history with 4099 runs, ahead of Raina (4098), Sharma (3874), Gautam Gambhir (3634) and Gayle (3426).