It was the last ball of the 17th over in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chase of 163 against Gujarat Lions in the second qualifier of the 2016 Indian Premier League. David Warner hit Praveen Kumar’s yorker-length delivery outside off right back towards the bowler. Kumar fielded it and feigned a throw back at the batsman. Warner barely moved. Kumar feigned once again, but Warner wasn’t perturbed.

His indifference looked to have irked PK, who then walked towards the Aussie and said a few words, before he was stopped in his tracks by his teammates. Warner only grinned at him, almost pityingly. That doesn’t work on me anymore, mate.

SRH still needed 34 runs from 18 balls at that stage, and had just four wickets in hand. Gujarat Lions were fancying their chances. However, with some help from all-rounder Bipul Sharma, Warner got a chance to reply to Kumar eventually in the final over of the game, but with his bat. With five needed off the last over, Warner stepped out and smacked PK through the off-side for two boundaries to end the game.

The diminutive batsman roared “Come on!” several times after hitting the winning boundary and leapt up in the air, before looking in the direction of Kumar, who was already walking towards the pavilion, his tail between his legs.

Warner had scored an unbeaten 93 off just 58 balls and almost single-handedly taken his team into the final. It was his third 90-plus score of the season, two of which were unbeaten. While Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were trailblazing through the season, hitting one century after the other and wowing one and all with their pyrotechnics, Warner was comparatively measured but equally effective, having now scored 779 runs in 16 matches at an average of just a shade under 60. Only Kohli has better figures.

Why Warner lay low

The low profile was a deliberate attempt and a feature of Warner’s game in the last 18 months. Before that, he had a reputation of being Australia’s chief “attack dog” on the field, both with his bat and his mouth. His infamous bout with England’s Joe Root in a pub ahead of the 2013 Ashes had almost stuck to him like a calling card: the guy who knocked out Joe Root.

Spurred on by his captain Michael Clarke and coach Darren Lehmann, Warner has also sparred with the likes of Kohli, De Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Rohit Sharma, and has been fined many times for unsporting behaviour.

All that’s in the past, now. In June 2015, Warner told ESPNcricinfo in an interview that he was making a conscious effort to dial down the sledging and verbal confrontations with opposition players in a bid to preserve his energy to score runs and prolong his career.

“In the past I’ve been someone who’s been told to go out there and do this and do that, but at the end of the day I’ve got to look after myself, and that’s what everyone does. There are people who do talk and don’t talk on the field. If I don’t want to be that instigator, I don’t have to be that instigator. So time will tell. I’ve learned a lot over the last five years,” he said.

Warner was the fourth-highest run-scorer in the world in Tests last year, with 1,317 runs at an average of 54.87. This included a career-best score of 253 against New Zealand. His feats earned him the Test vice-captaincy, along with the prestigious Allan Border Medal. Once labelled only a T20 player, Warner is now an indispensable member of the Australian Test team and he has achieved this without really changing his game.

The shots and the aggression (with the bat) are all still there, and he is still one of the most entertaining and explosive batsmen in the world today. “He’s a joy to watch,” former Australian opener Matthew Hayden told The Times of India recently. “The living room in our house comes alive every time he comes on to bat. It’s stop, hold the phone and watch Dave play. He’s brilliant.”

Team game

An IPL trophy may not be on top of Warner’s priority list, but it would be a great confidence-booster ahead of a busy year for Australian cricket, in which the team travels to West Indies, Sri Lanka and India, and hosts South Africa, Pakistan, and New Zealand ahead of the Champions Trophy in June 2017.

However, for Warner’s Sunrisers to have a chance against Kohli and De Villiers’ RCB, they will need the rest of the batsmen to turn up as well. The Australian pocket dynamo has towered above his teammates, among whom are batsmen such as Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh. While those two have come to the party on a few occasions, Warner would have appreciated some more consistency from them.

The Sunrisers have a well-balanced team, unlike RCB who are top-heavy. However, Warner with the bat, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman with the ball, have been the ones who have carried them into the final so far.

Rahman is likely to miss out on the final with an injury, so the onus will be on Warner and Kumar to deliver. However, RCB are in miraculous form, pulling off the five straight wins they needed to enter the final, and it's going to take a team effort to beat them. Warner can only hope that the other ten members of his team also show up.