A Yuzvendra Chahal three-wicket haul and half-centuries from debutant Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers guided Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a 10-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in its opening game of the 2020 IPL at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Jonny Bairstow's fifty went in vain as Chahal, with ample support from pacer Navdeep Saini, choked Hyderabad out of the game. Bangalore took the last eight wickets for just 32 runs.
Chasing 164 for the victory, SRH was unlucky as David Warner was run-out at the non-striker's end in the second over. Bairstow hit a Umesh Yadav delivery right back at him and the bowler, unable to hold on to the ball, deflected it towards the stumps to dismiss the Australian opener.
After their skipper's departure, Bairstow and Manish Pandey put on 71 runs for the second-wicket. Needing 75 runs from 49 balls, Pandey looked to hit Chahal over long-off. But his lazy shot launched the ball straight into the hands of Saini.
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Twenty balls later, Chahal dismissed Bairstow for a 43-ball 61. The English wicket-keeper was bowled trying to heave a flighted delivery on leg stump over midwicket. Chahal was on a hattrick as Vijay Shankar lost his bails to a googly in the next ball.
Shivam Dube then got rid of another young debutant, Priyam Garg, to tilt the scale in favour of his side. Abhishek Sharma was run-out next due to a collision with his teammate Rashid Khan, with SRH needing 29 runs from 19 balls.
Saini dented the Sunrisers' hopes even further by getting the wickets of Rashid and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, both bowled. An injured Mitchell Marsh then came in to save the game for his side but the RCB bowlers had the last laugh.
Earlier in the day, Warner won the toss and elected to bowl. Padikkal and Aaron Finch opened the innings for RCB, while Bhuvneshwar took the new ball.
After scoring just two runs in the opening over, Padikkal started attacking the Hyderabad bowlers, hitting 11 and 12 runs respectively off the first overs of Sandeep Sharma and T. Natarajan, who was preferred over fellow left-armer Khaleel Ahmed in the Hyderabad playing XI.
Finch, who himself hit two huge sixes, was happy to play the anchor's role as his opening partner smashed eight fours on his way to a well deserved half-century.
In the fifth over, Marsh was only able to bowl four balls as he walked off the field with an ankle injury. Shankar completed Marsh's over and conceded 10 off the remaining two.
However, it was Shankar who made the first breakthrough on the night when he castled Padikkal for 56 in the last ball of the 11th over. Orthodox spinner Abhishek then caught Finch plumb in front, the very next ball as RCB was reduced to 90/2.
Virat Kohli and De Villiers added 33 runs for the third-wicket. The Bangalore captain then found Rashid at deep midwicket when he tried to hammer Natarajan's length ball on middle stump in the 16th over.
De Villiers then hit the accelerator as he moved from 21 off 18 to 51 off 30, smashing 14 runs in the penultimate over bowled by Sandeep. His innings included four boundaries and two maximums.
Manish Pandey's incredible effort at long-off helped his side get rid of the South African superstar, with three balls remaining in the 20th over. The Royal Challengers were eventually restricted to 163 as Bhuvneshwar conceded just 25 runs from his four overs.
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