Australia and England are considered to be one of the biggest rivals in cricket, however, it’s not the case in the Indian Premier League. Sunrisers Hyderabad openers David Warner (Australian) and Jonny Bairstow (English) stitched a 100+ partnership on Thursday while playing against Kings XI Punjab in the match no.22 of IPL 2020.
SRH, who opted to bat first, got a perfect start courtesy their openers who were on song as the pair stitched 160 runs partnership for the first wicket.
Warner smashed 52 runs off 40 balls, including 5 fours and a six, while Bairstow missed a century by a whisker as he was dismissed for 97. The English batsman hit 7 fours and 6 sixes during his innings.
Notably, both the batsmen were dismissed by youngster Ravi Bishnoi in the 16th over of the SRH innings.
Interestingly, this is the fifth instance when Warner and Bairstow have stitched a 100-run partnership.
Most 100+ partnerships in IPL:
- 9 V Kohli – AB de Villiers (71 innings)
- 9 V Kohli – C Gayle (59)
- 6 D Warner – S Dhawan (50)
- 5 G Gambhir – R Uthappa (48)
- 5 D Warner – J Bairstow (16)
Also, they are the first opening pair first in the history of IPL to put on 3 consecutive centuries in IPL as they had partnerships of 118, 110, and 185 in three consecutive matches of IPL 2019.
Notably, the 185-runs partnership between Warner and Bairstow in 2019 is still the highest opening partnership in the history of IPL.
Highest Opening Wicket Partnership in IPL
| Runs | Players | Against | Venue | Date | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 185 | Jonny Bairstow and David Warner Sunrisers Hyderabad |
RCB | Hyderabad | 31-03-2019 | IPL 2019 |
| 184* | Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn Kolkata Knight Riders |
GL | Rajkot | 07-04-2017 | IPL 2017 |
| 183 | KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal Kings XI Punjab |
RR | Sharjah | 27-09-2020 | IPL 2020 |
| 181* | Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson Chennai Super Kings |
K11P | Dubai | 04-10-2020 | IPL 2020 |
| 167 | Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan Royal Challengers Bangalore |
PWI | Bangalore | 23-04-2013 | IPL 2013 |
It won’t be wrong to say that David Warner and Jonny Bairstow are two most important players in SRH squad and interestingly, the two men did the bulk of the scoring for Hyderabad last season.
Warner was the leading run-scorer in the 2019 edition, scoring 692 runs in 12 matches at an average of 69.20, with eight fifties and a century to his name, while Bairstow scored 445 runs in 10 matches at an average of 55.62, notching up two fifties and a century.
Editors pick
