David Warner, who had led Sunrisers Hyderabad to Indian Premier League (IPL) title in 2016, was removed from captaincy and subsequently dropped from the playing XI in the 2021 season resulting in a huge controversy in the SRH dressing room. He was eventually released before the mega auction, where he was roped in by Delhi Capitals. Hence, many veterans of the game termed the DC-SRH clash at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday as a revenge game. And the Aussie did prove a point with his unbeaten 92 off 58 in DC's 21-run win. (Follow IPL 2022 full coverage)
The knock, laced with 12 boundaries and three sixes helped Delhi finish with 207 for three in 20 overs. After the match, where Warner was given the Player of the Match award, former Australia all-rounder and present assistant coach of the Delhi Capitals, Shane Watson hilariously introduced Warner as the "ex-captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad". And Warner came up with epic response.
“I’m first going to go to the ex-captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Little bit of fire in the belly for tonight’s game,” Watson said addressing Warner in an interview on iplt20.com.
“Yeah look, I didn’t need extra motivation that’s for sure,” Warner replied as Watson smiled.
{{/usCountry}}“Yeah look, I didn’t need extra motivation that’s for sure,” Warner replied as Watson smiled.
{{/usCountry}}“Obviously we lost the toss, our job was to come out and try and get a great start in the powerplay. We always talk about it, if one person scores 80 and one person gets 40, probably going to win a lot of the games. Tonight, it was fantastic to be up there with Rovi (Rovman Powell). I think the way the Rishi (Rishabh Pant) came out and took down Shreyas Gopal was probably the turning point of the innings for us,” he added.
Watson further teased Warner by asking, "Do you think you'll have the same fire in your belly for the next couple of games as well?"
"I've always got fire in my belly, you know that Shane," Warner replied with a grin.