Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Match Highlights: Kohli and AB De Villiers clinch 45 runs victory for Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore started their IPL 9 campaign at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium as they welcomed Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH's captain David Warner won the toss and had no hesitation to bowl first. This has been a trend at Chinnaswamy as teams prefer chasing at this venue which is small compared to other stadiums.
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SRH added Ashish Nehra and Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rehman in their starting XI as RCB brought Shane Watson for his first match in this franchise. Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli opened the batting for RCB and a lot was expected from this dashing duo. While Kohli played a captain's knock of 75, Gayle(1) disappointed as he was removed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the second over itself. But RCB have the most destructive batting line-up of IPL as SRH saw AB de Villiers coming to bat at number three.
Things got worse for SRH as these two stared playing their shots and the fast outfield of Chinnaswamy made things simple. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers showed why they are considered as the top batsmen in the world right now as they took the SRH bowlers to the cleaners. David Warner did not have much choice as he rotated his five bowlers but to make things more worse, their main bowler, Ashish Nehra, got injured and had to leave the field.
AB de Villiers reached his fifty in just 26 balls which till then involved 4 fours and 4 sixes. Virat Kohli too batted well as he played the role of second fiddle. He completed his fifty in 40 balls as these two added 157 runs for the second wicket partnership. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a perfect yorker to get rid of the RCB captain who made 75 off 51 balls. Watson joined de Villiers but the latter departed as he tried to play a big shot off Mustafizur Rehman.
Then came young star Sarfaraz Khan, as he added important 35 runs off just 10 balls. His unorthodox shots were impressive as SRH bowlers did not had any answers. Shane Watson(19) tried to up the ante, but was removed by Mustafizur.
In the end, RCB finished with a healthy total of 227/4 in their 20 overs. AB de Villiers(82) scored the most runs as SRH’s Mustazifur Rehman, on his IPL debut, finished with 2/26 in his 4 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar finished with 2/55 and Moises Henriques with 0/41.
Chasing 228 was never going to be an easy task. But SRH had the line-up to at least come near to the total. SRH’s destructive opening pair of David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan at the top did start well as they scored 35 in the first three overs. Kohli then introduced Parvez Rasool and the spinner removed Dhawan(8), who looked uncomfortable at the crease.
David Warner then had his fellow Australian mate, Moises Henriques with him as Warner started playing the big shots. Warner reached his fifty in 21 balls as he tonked the ball everywhere. Shane Watson removed the dangerous looking Aussie who made 58 off just 25 balls, who gave a simple catch to Adam Milne at deep midwicket.
After the departure of Warner, SRH lost the track as Naman Ojha(0), Moises Henriques(19) and Deepak Hooda(6) failed to be at the crease. Leggie Yuzvendra Chahal continued his previous year’s form as he completed with 2/43 in his four overs. Virat Kohli rotated his bowlers well and the bowlers too, bowled in good areas as they did not allow SRH batsmen to score freely.
Ashish Reddy(32) played a quick knock but it went in vain. Eoin Morgan(22)* showed some fight in the end but the target was out of reach. Parvez Rasool(1/31) impressed and Shane Watson finished with 2/30 in his four overs.
So, Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 45 runs in their first match. AB de Villiers rightly got the Man of the Match award for his superb innings of 82 off 42 balls which helped RCB post a challenging total on the board. RCB are second in the points table with an impressive Net Run Rate but there is a long way to go.
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