On April 11, at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, the MI beat DC by six wickets in a nail-biting last-ball finish. The five-time winners were victorious for the first time in this season’s IPL. When MI won the toss, they elected to bowl. David Warner reached the half-century mark (51 runs off 47 balls), but his poor strike rate disappointed him. Washington DC’s batting total dropped from 165/5 after 18 overs to 172 all out in 19.4 overs due to a late collapse.
MI’s reply started well, as they were comfortable at 139/1 after 15.4 overs. However, DC returned to the game after the rapid dismissals of Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, and Suryakumar Yadav. Cameron Green and Tim David played crucial cameo roles in bringing MI home in the nick of time. The dropped catch and run-out opportunity in the final over will haunt DC, and Mukesh Kumar lost the catch, and Anrich Nortje and skipper David Warner missed run-out attempts.
Here are three examples of David Warner’s costly mistakes in the field:
1) The Ashes 2018-19: Second Test, Australia vs England
As the Ashes 2018-19 second Test between Australia and England hung in the balance, Warner dropped three catches, and Australia missed two reviews.
As a first slip fielder, the Australian batter blew several opportunities. Warner wasted a chance to dismiss Joe Denly off Peter Siddle’s bowling while Denly was on base with seven runs. Denly finished with 26 points. Warner dropped Ben Stokes twice, and he went on to reach a hundred despite these early disappointments. Warner had an opportunity to make a diving catch to his left, but Australian keeper Tim Paine got there before.
Australia’s dominant position in the Test match suddenly collapsed, forcing them to bat in an attempt to maintain a draw.
2) IPL 2015: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
With Virat Kohli at the crease, the Royal Challengers Bangalore needed four runs off two balls to win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Bhuvneshwar Kumar of SRH created an opening, but David Warner, as captain, did not take advantage of it.
David Warner, who was fielding at long-off, was hit by an errant fly ball from Virat Kohli. David Warner made the catch, but he stepped over the boundary rope in his excitement over Kohli’s dismissal. RCB were awarded a six, which ultimately led to a six-wicket victory. Herschelle Gibbs’ catch-dropping celebration from the 1999 World Cup came to mind as I witnessed the incident.
3) IPL 2023: Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians
Tim David, needing two runs off the penultimate ball, smashed a delivery from Anrich Nortje to long off. Tim David’s bat took a beating as the ball got to long-off David Warner. Warner had to make a fast, accurate run-in to catch the ball and throw it out to the base to get David out as he tried to score a second time.
Warner did an excellent job with the first two, but his throw was off, forcing wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel to extend to catch it and giving the batter ample time to score a second run. If someone had thrown accurately over the stumps, Tim David would have been out of his crease, and the game would have gone into extra innings.