Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal Star in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Win over Sunrisers Hyderabad
IPL
|| India Correspondent ||
Talented youngster Devdutt Padikkal and experienced spinner Yuvzvendra Chahal sealed the deal for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their opening IPL game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 10 runs.
While putting into bat, Devdutt made his debut in the cash-rich T20 league for RCB and impressed everyone with a stunning knock. The 20-year-old played shots all around the park, playing the pull and aerial cover drive with ease. Padikkal smashed three boundaries in an over off left-arm pacer T Natarajan as well.
He brought up his fifty with a slog sweep over the fielder at deep square leg. He amassed 56 off 42 with 8 fours. His opening partner Aaron Finch too supported him well with a 27-ball 29. The duo added 90 runs before Finch got out.
After his dismissal, Virat Kohli joined the youngster but failed to leave a mark. However, another key player AB de Villiers steadied the ship with him and his quickfire 51 off 30 gave the much-needed stability in the middle-order as they were able to put up a comfortable total of 163 for five in their allotted 20 overs.
While chasing 164 to win the game, SRH got off to a poor start as their opener David Warner fell for run a ball 6. However, it was Manish Pandey who built the partnership slowly with Jonny Bairstow. They took the scorecard to 89 in 11 overs before Yuzvendra Chahal took his first wicket in the form of Pandey who was playing at 34 off 33.
Meanwhile, Bairstow, on the other hand, looked comfortable while chasing the target. But Chahal had some other plans as he dismissed Jonny and Vijay Shankar in consecutive balls in the 16th over and ensured his team’s win as well. While Bairstow tried to hit Chahal out of the park, Shankar missed the perfectly placed googly and both of them got bowled.
That double dismissal witnessed a batting collapse of Sunrisers' inexperienced middle-order. Along with Chahal, pace bowler Navdeep Saini (2/25) and Shivam Dube (2/15) also impressed with the ball whereas Umesh Yadav once again failed to impress, conceding 48 runs in four overs. However, RCB managed to bowl SRH out for 153 and started their campaign with a victory.
