Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) who had a terrible first-phase of IPL 2021, suffered yet another defeat against current table toppers Delhi Capitals (DC) in the recently resumed second-leg of the tournament which is now being played in UAE.
The Australian opener David Warner who was sacked as the captain of SRH during the first-leg of this cash-rich league in India, continued his poor form in Dubai as he failed to trouble the scorers in his team’s opening game of this UAE-leg against DC.
While evaluating the Aussie batter’s innings against the Delhi-based franchise, former England batter Kevin Pietersen opined that he wasn’t surprised to see the southpaw losing his wicket to Nortje as the Englishman believes Nortje-Rabada duo know how to knock Warner over.
“Nortje and Rabada know how to bowl to David Warner. I think Rabada has knocked him over 4-5 times already. So they know and understand how to bowl to Warner. I am not surprised actually. I think this was a real tough game for Warner,” Pietersen told Star Sports.
“He would have thought last night 'Oh no, not Delhi Capitals. Not Rabada and Nortje. Not these two. Give me Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, somebody else and I am actually going to find a way'. These two know how to bowl to him and they knocked him over cheaply,” he added.
Kane Williamson opted to bat first after winning the toss against DC but were restricted to 134/9, thanks to brilliant bowling by South African pace duo Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, who got the early breakthroughs and Akshar Patel who also chipped in with two wickets.
In reply, the Rishabh Pant-led franchise ended up chasing this total quite comfortably with 19 balls to spare and with these two points, DC went ahead of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and became the table toppers of IPL 2021.
(With Star Sports Inputs)
