Another successful season of Indian Premier League (IPL) is over and Mumbai Indians crowned as the champions for the record fourth time. In a high voltage match at Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, Rohit Sharma's Mumbai beat MS Dhoni's Chennai by 1 run in a last-ball thriller.
Like every year, many records were made and broken this year too but one of the things that remains constant is the sublime form of Australian batsman David Warner, who started off the season from where left the 2017 campaign. Making a comeback after one year ban, Warner completely nailed the season by earning the Orange Cap for himself. Orange Cap is given to the batsman who scored the most number of runs in the entire season.
Warner played only 12 matches this season in which he scored 692 runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kings XI Punjab's KL Rahul and Mumbai's Quinton de Kock followed him in the list with 593 and 529 runs respectively.
He became the only player to receive the Orange Cap three time in the IPL history. The Aussie opener previously grabbed it in 2015 and 2017. While the second on the list is Chris Gayle, who grabbed it twice in his career in 2011 and 2012
Warner left the season early for the national team duty as Australian team started their World Cup preparation campaign on May 3. He was not present in the prize distribution ceremony, as his Orange Cap was received by SRH's mentor VVS Laxman.
The Aussie opener recorded a message for winning the Orange Cap in which he said, "It's an honour to win the orange cap. We batsmen don't play this game for awards, we try to win. Big credit to our curators at Hyderabad, they prepare great wickets and feels great to play in front of those crowds. I am privileged to be a part of this tournament, it's the best league in the world. Thank you very much."
It was a tough road for the Aussie opener after receiving a lot of flak from fans for his involvement in ball-tampering. But he proved that "When you're backed against the wall break the goddamn thing down."
The southpaw smashed eight half-centuries and a blistering century in his comeback season. He and Jonny Bairstow were the only positive aspects for Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. Warner started the campaign with a blistering half-century against Kolkata Knight Riders. SRH lost the match but the-left-hander scored 85 and announced his comeback in style.
Warner form is an excellent sign for the Australian camp to defend the title in the World Cup that is going to held in England later this month.
