IPL 2020 who said what: Cricket fraternity reacts as RCB beat SRH in thriller
A spectacular contest in the IPL between the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) saw the latter emerge victorious by a margin of 10 runs.
Put in to bat first, RCB racked up a total of 163/5. Riding on twin half-centuries by debutant Devdutt Padikkal, who scored 56(42) and AB de Villiers, who amassed 51(30), RCB were able to post a competitive total.
RCB got off to a flier courtesy Aaron Finch and Padikkal who put up a partnership of 90 runs for the first wicket. Wickets fell in clusters after that which prevented RCB from crossing the 170-run mark.
Chasing 164 for victory, SRH lost David Warner early. After his departure, Jonny Bairstow, who scored 61(43), and Manish Pandey, who scored 34(33), stitched together a gritty partnership of 71 runs and RCB had their backs to the wall at that stage.
Even after Pandey fell, Bairstow continued attacking and SRH were cruising towards an easy victory. However, Yuzvendra Chahal had other plans as he helped RCB claw their way back into the match, picking two wickets in two deliveries.
Subsequently, SRH lost wickets in quick succession and a middle-order collapse handed RCB a win and enabled them to kick-start their campaign with a bang. Here is how the cricketing fraternity reacted to RCB's win:
David Warner
"I can't remember the last time I was out like that. There's four things that happened in this game that I have never seen before. A lot of courage for Mitchell to go out there and try. It doesn't look great for him, can't put any weight on his leg. Hopefully it isn't too bad, it was quite painful for him, so fingers crossed."
"We had the run chase in control and we knew that we had to go after their bowlers in the end. Probably the last over of Chahal was the turning point out there. We have to go back to the drawing board; we obviously can't fix what happened today but we have to go back and work hard before our next game in Abu Dhabi."
"There are talking points but the guys know what they have to do. Exciting times for Indian cricket and I can't wait to see what the young players produce."
Virat Kohli
"It's amazing and last year we were on the other side of the results. We kept our composure tonight. Yuzi came in and changed the game for us. Tonight he showed that if you have skill, you can get purchase on any wicket. The way he came in and bowled attacking lines, he was the one in my opinion who changed the game."
"We started really well and Devdutt was really good and Finch was good too. AB batting in the last three overs helped us push it past 160 and as I said, the fact that we didn't let negativity slip into the bowling group was a great sign and Dube bowling those three overs was really good to see."
Yuzvendra Chahal
"When I bowled my first over, I realized I need to bowl stump-to-stump line and backed myself. At one point they were batting well and I was trying to bowl loopy ones and wide of the reach which helped in building pressure."
"When I bowled to Pandey I was trying to outside off-stump with that field, but decided to bowl within the stumps because it is difficult to hit through the leg-side and with Bairstow I bowled little fuller and outside leg so that it becomes tough for him to target the leg-side with the turn away. When Vijay came Virat and AB told me to go for a googly and it worked. I put some mud on my hands to make sure there is no dew."
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