Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Dubai by 10 runs and started with a win in the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Monday.
RCB got off to a flying start. Devdutt Padikkal, who was making his IPL debut, hit two fours in the second run and three more in the fourth run. SRH was then treated with an injury blow when Mitchell Marsh had to leave the field after bowling just four supplies.
RCB then increased to fifty in the final of the power play before SRH bowled three tight overs and only conceded 15 overs. However, Aaron Finch hit a six and a four from Rashid Khan’s first over to bring RCB to 75 at the end of the 9th over.
But SRH fired both RCB openers on consecutive deliveries. First Vijay Shankar disrupted the wood to finish Devdutt Padikkal’s innings, and then Abhishek held Sharma Finch prisoner at the gates.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers then added 43 runs before T overtook Natarajan in the 16th to get the RCB skipper out for 14. ABD then cut off to add to his fifty, however, pushing RCB over 160 total before running out for 51 over the RCB innings in the final.
RCB defended 163 and hit early thanks to a stroke of luck when Umesh Yadav managed to deflect Jonny Bairstow’s shot at the stumps on his own bowling to cut David Warner’s stay in the middle.
Manish Pandey came to Bairstow in the middle and the pair added 71 runs from 62 deliveries before Yuzvendra Chahal fired Pandey for 33. While Bairstow had a few respites, he made the most of it and brought his fifty past on the 14th as SRH approached 110. At this point, RCB needed a couple of quick wickets and they got what they were looking for.
Since SRH needed 43 runs with 29 balls, Chahal struck twice. He prevailed against Bairstow first and broke Vijay Shankar’s defense on the next delivery to get his third wicket.
There was another two-wicket when SRH lost to Priyam Garg, who did not time his shot and pulled a Shivam Dube delivery on the stumps. At the same time, Abhishek Sharma lost his wicket in a collision with Rashid Khan in the middle of the pitch.
Navndeep Saini then upset the wood twice when SRH Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid lost over on the 18th. While Marsh went to hit despite the injury, Dube took him out on the first ball before Dale Steyn sealed the RCB victory and dismissed Sandeep Sharma in the final.
