Dubai : A batting collapse for Sunrisers Hyderabad helped Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore secure a 10-run victory in their opening encounter of IPL 2020 in Dubai International Stadium, UAE on Monday (September 21).
Yuzvendra Chahal was the star of the show for RCB as the leg-spinner returned figures of 3/18 from his four overs, picking up the crucial wickets of Manish Pandey, Johnny Bairstow and Vijay Shankar which triggered the fall of Sunrisers who thereafter folded up like a pack of cards.
It was Sunrisers who won the toss and decided to field first. Devdutt Pallikal and AB de Villiers delivered the goods for RCB with the willow as the red and gold brigade managed to notch 163/5 in their quota of 20 overs. Pallikal top scored for his side with a 42-ball 56 while De Villiers smashed his way to a 30 ball 51. Australian opener Aaron Finch too contributed with 29. Virat Kohli (14) was unlucky on the day as he was holed out in the deep trying to hit one out of the park.
Although 163 din’t seem like a daunting task, in a ground with huge boundaries the score surely was a challenging one.
In reply, Hyderabad suffered a major blow upfront as their captain David Warner (6) was run out as a straight drive from his batting partner Johnny Bairstow ricochet of bowler Umesh Yadav’s hand and cannoned into the stumps with Warner outside his crease.
However, Manish Pandey and Bairstow made sure they knit a useful partnership and after the former’s dismissal, Bairstow continued his good show with Priyam Garg.
Seeing the game slip out of his hands, Virat Kohli called in Chahal to get him a breakthrough. The leggie delivered for his side with two successive wickets, first castling Bairstow and then bowling Vijay Shankar through the gate.
Thereafter it was the Sunrisers Hyderabad losing the plot completely as their last six batsmen contributed with scores of 7,6,0,9,0,3 handing RCB a well deserved victory.
Brief scores :
RCB (163/5)
Devdutt Padikkal – 56 from 42
AB de Villiers – 51 from 30
Aaron Finch – 29 from 27
SRH (153/10)
Johnny Bairstow – 61 from 43
Manish Pandey – 34 from 33
Priyam Garg – 12 from 13
