David Warner underplays century

David Warner reached for the sky with the bat but kept his feet on the ground. As the level-headed Aussie plundered Kolkata Knight Riders into submission, he was still humble about his achievements, and realistic about his team's progress.

"Let's not go that far," he responded when asked about Delhi Daredevils' chances of making the semi-finals. "It was great to get the chance and do well.

"The most satisfying thing for me was the win. Naturally, I am pretty happy about my first 100 for Delhi. But with the kind of line-up we have, whoever comes in to play has to fight for his place.

"We can afford to drop players of the calibre of AB de Villiers and Tillekeratne Dilshan and still have a perfectly balanced line-up. Getting the 100 was a great milestone for me, and I have had the good luck of doing well and also worked with Greg Shipperd, who I think is one of the best batting coaches around."

Warner took over for Delhi when Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir both failed, which only goes to reflect how deep the batting really is for the side. He and Paul Collingwood stitched a crucial partnership which ensured that Kolkata were never really in the match, despite having the hosts on the ropes initially.

Is this the best batting line-up of the IPL? "I think our bowling is equally good, with the Indian lads performing well, so we can afford to play as many as eight batters. But still, it needs someone between numbers one and four to hold the innings together and carry it to a big total."

Warner had a reprieve when Murali Kartik claimed a return catch with the left-hander on 96. "I wasn't confident he had taken the catch," Warner said. "But I was walking out anyway before the other members of my team asked me to wait. Luckily for me, the umpires took it upstairs.
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"Its not always easy to judge these catches, even for the fielder. This is the kind of thing that happens in the heat of the moment."

Asked if Shane Bond's presence would have made a difference, the little Aussie said: "I would have liked Bond to play, since the extra pace gets you going."

Kolkata Knight Riders had little to offer in terms of performances, so David Hussey, who took an absolute peach of a catch in the field, was their representative.

"We had a lot of plans," about Warner, Hussey said. "We had Plans A, B, C and D, but he played one of the best innings of his career and nothing worked."