Winning the tournament in 2016 is my favourite IPL memory, reveals David Warner

David Warner, in 2014, moved to the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise from (then) Delhi Daredevils and that move is widely considered the single greatest purchase in IPL history. Since moving to the Hyderabad-based franchise, Warner has racked up over 3000 runs remarkably in just 5 seasons and has also won the Orange Cap twice, including the last season where he scored 692 runs.

But despite his consistency with the bat, Warner’s notable achievement, however, was leading the franchise to their maiden IPL title in 2016 and now, the Australian, who was once again re-appointed as the captain of the franchise earlier this year, branded winning the title in 2016 as his favourite IPL memory of all time.

"My favourite IPL memory is when we won the IPL in 2016, we had a very good tournament, the best thing was we won a lot of close games, it helped in developing a sense of belief within the side. A lot of credit goes to our coaches and mentors at that time," Warner said a video posted by the SRH Twitter account, reported TOI. 

After batting first and scoring 208, Warner’s side faced the wrath of the Gayle-Kohli duo and soon, in no time, the hosts RCB were 114/0 off just 10.2 overs. However, Ben Cutting, who’d scored 24 off the last over, opened the floodgates by sending Gayle back to the hut and soon after, the Kohli-led side collapsed, slumping to an eight-run defeat. Warner recalled the memorable encounter and stated that he would cherish the sweet memory for the rest of his life.

"We came up against RCB in Bangalore in the finals, we knew how well Virat went in that edition, he scored 900 odd runs in the finals, it was about backing ourselves, we won the toss and elected to bat first, I felt like a team our best attribute was defending the totals.

"We managed to do that, Ben Cutting I think scored 28 runs off the final over, my heart was in my mouth when Virat and Gayle were going all guns blazing. But we got quick wickets and we went on to win the final, it is one thing I will cherish for the rest of my life.”