Yuvraj on song as Sunrisers Hyderabad make winning IPL start
Yuvraj Singh smashed his quickest Indian Premier League half-century as Sunrisers Hyderabad started their title defence with a 35-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in a repeat of last year's final.
Sunrisers defeated RCB to win their first IPL title at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore last May and they came out on top once again in a run-fest in Hyderabad, starting the tournament in style.
Yuvraj (62 from 27 deliveries) was dropped on 26 and went on to score his biggest total for Sunrisers, while Moises Henriques made 52 from only 37 balls as the home side posted a whopping 207-4 on a flat pitch.
Teenager Rashid Khan, the first player from Afghanistan to feature in the IPL, took 2-36 in his tournament debut as RCB's innings fell apart following a promising start, making 172 all out as injured captain Virat Kohli watched on and AB de Villiers was also ruled out.
. @SunRisers win the 1st match of VIVO #IPL 2017 by 35 runs #SRHvRCB pic.twitter.com/9thkLCwMcF
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 5, 2017
David Warner inspired the Sunrisers to victory in the final last year, but the captain failed on this occasion, cutting Aniket Choudhary to Mandeep Singh at point for only 14.
Shikhar Dhawan was in the mood as he made a brisk 40, but Stuart Binny struck to get rid of dangerous opener with 93 on the board in the 11th over.
Yuvraj and Henriques then took charge, the India all-rounder clearing the ropes three times and scoring a further seven boundaries with some clean hitting, taking advantage of being put down by Sreenath Aravind, while Henriques also dished out some punishment in a stand of 58.
Ben Cutting hit fellow Australian Shane Watson for two sixes in an expensive final over from the stand-in skipper, getting the home side over the 200 mark, but Chris Gayle (32 off 21) and Mandeep got the three-time runners-up off to a flyer.
Gayle looked in ominous form, teeing off with three big sixes, but trying one shot too many, picked out Warner on the boundary off Deepak Hooda after Rashid had cleaned up Mandeep.
Cutting produced a tremendous throw to run Kedar Jadhav out and 18-year-old tweaker Rashid struck again to get rid of Travis Head before Ashish Nehra took two wickets in as many balls to take his tally to 100 in the IPL in an impressive start for the holders.