Finishing in top-two our focus: David Warner

Despite having notched up their eighth victory in 2016 Indian Premier League and being all but through to the knockouts, Sunrisers Hyderabad are in no mood to give up on their winning habit. After the seven-wicket win against Kings XI Punjab, the team's next match is against Delhi Daredevils who have just slipped to the fifth spot in the points table. While the Sunrisers have earned themselves a well-deserved four-day break, the David Warner-led team knows there is no scope for complacency. 

"It's about not being complacent and about moving forward and keep continuing to play good cricket," Warner said on Sunday (May 15), after his team chased down 180 to all but seal the first spot for the playoffs.

Asked if the team's approach towards the final set of games would change, given their command over the points tally, Warner said the focus would remain on winning as many games as possible before the knockouts and finding a spot in top-two to have a couple of chances to make it to the final.

"Obviously we're very happy and excited to go through, but for us it is about winning. And winning is the key to having momentum in this format. We need to keep winning to finish in the top-two and that's out focus. Now we've set our sights on the next game. We go to Raipur and play against Delhi. They beat us in the last game and we didn't play particularly well and we have to be at our best to beat Delhi, that could potentially be the team we fight against in the final," he added.

The captain was mighty pleased with the fight his batsmen put up to scale the tall target, despite the bowling unit giving away freebies towards the end of Kings XI's innings. "I was little bit disappointed with the way we bowled, I felt they got about 20 runs too many. But as a batting group when we get out there and start as we did and have belief and back yourself to bat deep - as MS Dhoni leads the Indian team - that's something the guys did well today. That's the belief we have in our team, that we're capable of winning on a day," the 29-year-old said. 

"We have allowed ourselves, in the last couple of games, to have time when we are batting. Sometimes when we get a little bit behind, we've rushed things. But I felt today when the batters were out there and assessed the conditions, we just felt that we were always ahead of the game. We took the scoreboard out of it and we batted till the last over. And I don't think any player felt pressure," a contented Warner explained.

The Australian spoke highly of Yuvraj Singh, who made an unbeaten 42 off 24 deliveries that helped Sunrisers get over the line. "Yuvraj has so much talent and has so much of experience that he just knew that if the ball is going to be in his zone, it is going to be dispatched over the fence, as we saw today," he said. "That's the quality he brings to this team in the middle period. He's always spoken about giving himself some time to dig in. We saw today how he came around and just played with a clean mind, and (we) had the intentions of backing ourselves to get to the end and achieve the target," Warner noted.

Finishing in top-two our focus: David Warner

The captain also heaped praise on Deepak Hooda who repaid the faith team showed in him by sending him one-down, chipping in with valuable cameo of 34 runs that ensured that the visitors didn't fall behind on the asking rate. "We had the intention of sending him and Ojha in the first six if one of got out, to play his game. And outside of six (overs), it was to give Hooda the opportunity to take the bowlers on," Warner revealed, when asked for the rationale behind Hooda's surprise promotion ahead of Yuvraj and Moises Henriques.

"He's such a good player of the spin and we felt with the bowlers bowling cutters and slower balls, he was the player who can lift up the run-rate and keep going. So that's what we did. He came in and sort of took the pressure off me a little bit so that I could just play my game. And that's the gamble you have to take some times... You can't just have a set structure, you got to be willing to change these little things and the players are up for that," he reasoned. 

Warner also revealed that senior pacer Ashish Nehra, who was helped off the field without completing his third over, has a 'tendon issue' which the medical staff of the team will continue to monitor closely.

Finishing in top-two our focus: David Warner