David Warner Bids Adieu To IPL 2019 With Emotional Message

David Warner played his last IPL 2019 match for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday night. The 32-year-old will no longer be available to play in IPL 2019 with Australia's pre-World Cup 2019 training camp starting from May 2. Warner signed off in style, smashing 81 off 56 balls in SRH's thumping 45-run win over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Following his match-winning knock, David Warner took to Instagram on Tuesday morning and penned an emotional message for the SunRisers Hyderabad fans, team, support staff and everyone else concerned with the IPL franchise.

The Australian star expressed his gratitude to the "SunRisers family for your support, not just this season but also for the last year".

View this post on Instagram

I can not express my gratitude enough to the @sunrisershyd family for your support, not just this season but also for the last year. It's been a long time waiting but it was great to be back amongst the boys. Owners, support staff, players, social media team and the fans thank you very much for welcoming me back with open arms. I thoroughly enjoyed being back out there swinging that willow. Good luck to the guys for the rest of the tournament and finish. #family #orangearmy #humbull #hashtag

A post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on Apr 29, 2019 at 9:34pm PDT

It was the last time David Warner will be seen in IPL 2019, but the Australian leaves the tournament on top. The former SunRisers Hyderabad captain is currently the top run-getter in IPL 2019 with 692 runs to his name in 12 matches.

The Australian is well ahead of second-placed KL Rahul, who has scored 520 runs for Kings XI Punjab this season, while Andre Russell is third with 486 runs.

David Warner hit eight half-centuries and a century, scoring at a strike-rate of 143.86 and an average of 69.20.

On Monday, David Warner struck a belligerent 81 runs, which included seven fours and two sixes.

Warner and Wriddhiman Saha (28 off 13) got Sunrisers off to a brisk start after being sent into bat. The duo took the Kings XI bowlers to the cleaners to pile up 77 runs of the first six overs of powerplay.

The Australian added another 82 runs off 55 balls with Manish Pandey before Kings XI Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (2/20) struck twice in the 16th over to remove both the set batsmen.

However, SunRisers Hyderabad still managed to post an imposing total of 212 for six.

In the chase, KL Rahul starred for KXIP, scoring 79 off 56 balls but found little support from his teammates as the visitors could only manage 167 for eight in their allotted 20 overs.