Royal Challengers Bangalore got their Indian Premier League campaign off to a winning start with a thrilling come-from-behind win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday, 21 September.
Put in to bat, RCB posted 163/4 in their 20 overs, courtesy half-centuries from Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers. SRH were making their run chase look like a cakewalk, having posted 121/2 in 15 overs. However, the RCB bowlers took 8 wickets in the last five overs to bowl SRH out for 153, successfully defending their total.
The Virat Kohli-led franchise were off to a flying start as openers Padikkal and Aaron Finch posted 86/0 in 10 overs.
Pacer Vijay Shankar finally broke the 90-run partnership in the 11th over, as he clean bowled Padikkal, who scored 56 runs off 42 balls, including eight fours. Finch was caught LBW for 29 off the very next ball, bowled by Abhishek Sharma.
Skipper Kohli didn't last long. He scored 14 runs off 13 balls before becoming a victim of T Natarajan.
De Villiers kept scoring from the other end and just when the SRH seemed to control the scoring rate, he upped the ante and slammed two consecutive sixes in the 19th over to take the RCB past the 150-run mark. The former South African cricketer scored 51 off just 30 balls before he was run out in the final over.
Sunrisers Hyderabad lost captain David Warner (6-ball 6) early in their run-chase.
Opener Jonny Bairstow and No.3 batsman Manish Pandey then stitched a 71-run stand to take SRH to 89/1 in 11.5 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal provided RCB a breakthrough, removing Pandey for a 33-ball 34 on the final ball of the 12th over.
Bairstow added another 32 runs with India’s Under-19 World Cup captain Priyam Garg, and Sunrisers were looking set at 121/2 in 15 overs before RCB’s bowlers inflicted a collapse.
The next 28 balls saw SRH lose 8 wickets, as the David Warner-led franchise was bowled all out and fell 10 runs short of their target.
Game Turner of the Match
Things started going downhill for Sunrisers Hyderabad from the 16th over when Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets in two balls.
16th over: Bairstow was bowled out for 61 runs off just 43 balls and Vijay Shankar (0) followed him back to the hut after getting undone by a beautiful Chahal googly.
17th over: Sunrisers lose two more batsmen in the over bowled by Shivam Dube. Garg was bowled out for 12 and Abhishek Sharma walked back after a nasty collision with Rashid Khan which resulted in a run out.
18th over: Saini removed Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0) and Rashid Khan (6) off successive deliveries to reduce SRH to 142/8, still needing 22 runs from 12 balls.
19th over: An injured Mitchell Marsh was caught out by Virat Kohli off a delivery by Dube, for a duck.
20th over: Kohli took another catch in the final over bowled by Dale Steyn to dismiss Sandeep Sharma as RCB clinched their first win of the season.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)