David Warner has guided his Sunrisers Hyderabad to a crushing 10-wicket IPL victory over the high-flying Gujarat Lions on Thursday.
The Australian opener won the toss and elected to field then saw his bowlers shine with the ball as the powerful Lions batting line-up were restricted to 8-135 from their 20 overs.
Warner's international teammate Aaron Finch lasted just four balls before becoming the first of Bhuvneswar Kumar's four victims - departing to a snorting delivery without scoring in the first over of the match.
Brendon McCullum and skipper Suresh Raina added a quickfire 56 for the second wicket and appeared to be in control of proceedings.
However, Warner's decision to introduce Bipul Sharma into the attack in the eighth over was vindicated when McCullum attempted to hit through the leg-side but only managed to find the fielder on the fence with the former Black Caps captain on 18.
Raina anchored his side's innings with a well crafted 75 but received little support from the Lions middle order with only Ravindra Jadeja passing double figures with a run-a-ball 14.
Warner, who now leads the IPL batting statistics, and Shikhar Dhawan made easy work on the under-par target, knocking off the runs in just 14.5 overs with the skipper producing a typically aggressive 74 from only 48 balls and his partner scoring a more measured 53 to inflict a first defeat on the second-placed Lions.
"I have to give credit to the bowlers, they allow us to play how we play," Warner said.
"If we can do this every time we are going to be in a good place.
"We knew this would be a bit two-paced the pitch, our bowlers were fantastic today, credit to them. Mustafizur (Rahman) tried to knock my block off first time I faced him, he is going to be a fantastic player for a long time to come."
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