Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeats Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin of 10-runs in the first match of the southern derby.
It was one of the much-coveted matches featuring two of the finest T20 cricketers – Virat Kohli and David Warner, taking on each other, with the former managing to get the upper hand in the first bout of the season.
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Batting first, Royal Challengers Bangalore had just the kind of start they would have wanted in their opening match of the season. Rising Karnataka player Devdutt Padikkal took the on the task of capitalizing on the powerplay while Aaron Finch held the innings from an end and kept striking singles and doubles.
The duo put 90-run stand for the first wicket with Padikkal notching a well-built 56 off 42 deliveries, until Vijay Shankar bowled him out, which was immediately followed by Finch’s dismissal to Abhishek Shrama who was instrumental in breaking the run-flow.
Virat Kohli and Ab de Villiers then dealt in massive running in between the wickets that established a 33-run stand for the third wicket. When the duo looked settled to go bonkers for the death overs, SRH skipper David Warner then brought back T Natarajan who then got the much-desired wicket of Virat Kohli, as he played a lofted shot and got caught to Rashid Khan positioned at long-on.
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It was only after this point that AB de Villiers started unleashing a flurry of boundaries and registered another half-century, before being run-out on 51, on the third ball of the final over courtesy a solid throw by Manish Pandey to the wicket-keeper’s end.
Among the pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/25) was the only positive in Sunrisers’ bowling tent, while Sandeep Sharma (0/36) grabbed expensive figures. Leggie Rashid Khan too had a forgettable day at work as he remained wicketless at the expense of 31 runs.
Sunrisers Hyerabad were to chase 164 runs and while the fans expected their skipper, David Warner, to fire from the very moment, he got run out on merely six runs by Umesh Yadav in his over.
Jonny Baistow and Manish Pandey then added 71-runs for the second wicket that started to shift the momentum in Sunrisers’ favor. While Bairstow acted as the dominating force, Pandey, on the other hand, kept ticking the singles and twos with occasional boundaries on board.
At this point, RCB needed a breakthrough and in-came their ace-leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who first got the better of Pandey who was well set and batting on 34, then again in the 15th over when he dismissed Bairstow and Vijay Shankar in consecutive deliveries, in the end, grabbing figures of 3/18 in his quota of four overs.
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Navdeep Saini (2/25) and Shivam Dube (2/15) were effective in clearing the middle and lower-middle-order and handing the Royal Challengers a 10-run triumph as Sunrisers were all out for 153.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will next face Kings XI Punjab on September 24 in Dubai, while Sunrisers Hyderbad will be up against Kolkata Knight Riders on September 26 in Abu Dhabi.
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