The hero: David Warner continues to mesmerise the viewers with his scintillating stroke play. The Sunrisers skipper’s innings of 92 from 50 balls was a combination of brute strength as well as some deft touches. Warner was particularly ruthless on anything pitched up in his half, sending it down to the rope or over it on 14 occasions. His compatriot Kane Richardson came in for some special treatment, the South Australian paceman going for 29 runs from the nine balls he bowled to Australia’s vice-captain. Warner’s 92 also earned him the Orange Cap as the tournament’s leading run-scorer to date.

The support cast: Playing his first game of the season, Kane Williamson was an ideal partner for the rampaging Warner. The Kiwi ace rotated the strike beautifully to progress to a run-a-ball 22 before freeing his arms. Williamson’s ability to continuously pierce the field through the leg-side was a delight to watch as he reached his half-century from 37 balls. Moises Henriques’ cameo also deserves a mention, with the allrounder blasting 31 from 14 to propel the Sunrisers to mammoth total of 194. Henriques also returned figures of 1-40 which included the wicket of the well-set KL Rahul.

The shot: Yesterday it was the ‘dog shot’, today it’s the ‘Whip Shot’ – a ball from Richardson was angled across Warner on a fuller length, and the left-hander, batting on leg-stump, reached out and used his bottom hand to flick the ball over midwicket for six. Even Virat Kohli, the opposition skipper, managed to curl his lip in appreciation.

The consolation efforts: KL Rahul sparkled as an opener, posting a half-century in just 28 balls to get the Royal Challengers a flying start. Rahul was complemented by AB de Villiers’ 47 from 32 but in pursuit of 195, the Royal Challengers needed one of the two to go on to make a Warner-like contribution.

Third-time lucky: Barinder Sran must have felt as if he’d he woken up on the wrong side of the bed after having de Villiers dropped twice, on three and 17. Sran turned his own luck around, first by running out Shane Watson with a direct hit from the boundary and then finally having de Villiers caught at long-on with a cleverly disguised slower ball.

The stat: David Warner has now scored 386 out of the 1200 runs his team has scored this season. That is an incredible 32 per cent of Hyderabad’s runs.

The wash-up: After getting steamrolled in their last match, the Sunrisers are back with a bang. Not that anyone doubted their credentials but with Williamson back at the top with Warner and with Yuvraj Singh set to return in the next match, they are suddenly looking like the team to beat. For the RCB, it’s officially panic stations in the bowling departments having conceded almost 400 runs in their last two matches.

The next stop: The Sunrisers stay at home to take on Gujarat Lions in a mouth-watering top-of-the-table clash while Royal Challengers face the Knight Riders in Bangalore.

The full list of players short-listed for the auctions has been released. It includes 130 capped players, 219 uncapped players and two from Associate Nations.

Out of these, 230 are Indians and 121 foreigners. The list was trimmed down from the original list of 714 cricketers who had given their names for the IPL auctions.

29 Australian capped cricketers have been short-listed for the auction. They are followed by players from India (26), West Indies (20), South Africa (18), Sri Lanka (16), New Zealand, (9), England (7) and Bangladesh (5).

Yuvraj Singh, Kevin Pietersen, Ashish Nehra, Shane Watson, Ishant Sharma, Sanju Samson, Dinesh Karthik, Stuart Binny and Dhawal Kulkarni are among the cricketers who have been listed with a base price of Rs 2 Crore (the highest base price bracket).

Yuvraj, who was left out of Delhi Daredevils, had fetched the highest price in the last two IPL auctions. Having returned to the national fold ahead of the ICC World T20, he is likely to attract a high bid in the upcoming auction.

Delhi Daredevils, who have released some of their biggest buys from the previous season – Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews have the heaviest purse going into the auction – Rs 37.15 crore. They are followed by Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have Rs 30.15 crore going into the auction. The two new franchises – Rising Pune Super Giants and Rajkot are joint-third on the list with Rs 27 crore each in their kitty.

Kings XI Punjab (Rs 23 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 21.625 crore) and Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 17.95 crore) follow them on the list. Defending champions Mumbai Indians, seem settled with the unit that played last year. They released 10 players from the contract list and have Rs 14.405 crore going into the auction.

T20 captain Lasith Malinga is the only Sri Lankan retained by a franchise (Mumbai Indians) in the IPL.

Sri Lanka players –

Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Nuwan Kulasekera, Ajantha Mendis, Sachitra Senanayake, Dushmantha Chameera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Dilruwan Perera, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, Milinda Siriwardana, Isuru Udana, Dilshan Munaweera, Seekkuge Prasanna