Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner explained the rationale behind opting to have Khaleel Ahmed complete the unfinished 19th over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Warner instead left young, inexperienced part-time leggie Abdul Samad bowl the 20th as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) strived to chase down the 165-run target in Dubai on Friday (October 2).
Defending their total of 164/5 in Match 14 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, SRH pushed CSK into a corner where they needed 44 runs off the last two overs.
At the start of the 19th over, the team's attack leader Bhuvneshwar could bowl only one ball and left the field for what seemed an aggravated cramp. Left-arm seamer Khaleel was brought on to finish the over, which eventually went for 16 runs.
Samad, predominantly a middle-order batsman, was given the ball to defend the 28 runs CSK required with their mighty skipper MS Dhoni still in. However, the youngster gave away only 20 of those and won his team the game by 7 runs at the end, much to Warner's relief.
"I backed him (Samad) - I had no option. We tried to kill the game in the 19th over with Khaleel there with five balls to bowl. Could have given it to Abhishek, but Samad with his height and the way he bowled tonight, had to bowl the last one," Warner said during the post-match presentation, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
In the first half, SRH were bailed out from a precarious situation by their two young guns, Priyam Garg (51*) and Abhishek Sharma (31), as they put the pressure back on CSK bowlers and gave SRH a fighting total after once being 69/4.
"This wicket was a little better as compared to the last one. It was quite challenging, it was good to see the ball swing upfront. It's my message to the youngsters, to go out there and score some runs. These guys assessed the conditions and played well, so really, really proud of them," said Warner.
"These guys really work hard, they execute their yorkers, they execute their slower ones. These are the rewards we are getting, and hopefully, we get the momentum going forward," he added.
SRH, having got back on track with two successive wins in response to their two earlier losses, next play defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in Sharjah on Sunday (October 4).
