What a start to IPL 2026 as RCB obliterate SRH, chasing 202 in 15.4 overs. What seemed like a tricky score at the halfway mark ended up being well short by the end of it. SRH have a lot of catching up to do and RCB are playing like defending champions. That will be it from us tonight, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for all your feedback, we will be back nice and early tomorrow for the MI-KKR game so do tune in. Till then, this is me Ashish, signing off on behalf of Ekanth, Chandan and Sudeep. Ciao!
Jacob Duffy is the player of the match: Awesome, hell of a way to start the campaign. Great win. [Doing the Hazlewood role] I am just keeping the big fellow's seat warm. I just wanted to bowl the hard lengths, just keep the ball there. Even better that I got to walk off the field after seven overs. We talked about the lengths and stuff, what works here. Just build on what Josh did. [Learning from the T20 WC] I am sick of bowling to Abhishek for sure. Haven't seen such bounce in India before as we saw here. But that was the case today. [Four overs on the bounce] Just Rajat said you go and I happily obliged, When the ball is hard and new is the best time to bowl on this surface.
RCB captain, Rajat Patidar: [Happy?] 100% The way boys played and this was a season opener. Everyone chipped in and did the job. [Powerplay bowling] Duffy was playing his first game and the way he played and the wickets he took were the turning point. [Quick batting] Not a policy, we assessed the wicket and it was good. Padikkal and Kohli's innings were the base. [On Kohli] No words for him. The way he goes in, the team is chasing. He is the No. 1 batter. [Catching] That was a terrific catch by Salt. Even I was surprised but he is a great fielder. [His batting] I wanted to create a lot of impact and I wanted to chase this quickly. I just wanted to have a lot of impact.
Presentation time
Shadow-Shell: "So SRH was atleast 50 short"
Hari: "Quietly, after 18 odd years, looks like RCB are turning Chinnaswamy into a fortress. It used to be reverse everytime with RCB on the receiving end but not today."
Rajkumar Lingav: "RCB made a statement here: dominated, finished strong, and boosted that NRR in style!"
Virat Kohli: It was good to get back out there. The last game I played was the final last year but I think the way I batted in the one-day series quite recently really helped me to stay in that same kind of momentum. I wasn't playing shots that I don't usually play so I knew as long as I have the rhythm and I've put enough work physically behind the scenes with my fitness, things should come together nicely and tonight was another chance to start strong and to build on this. [Playing one format] The kind of scheduling that we've had over the last 15 years and the amount of cricket I've played, for me there was always a risk of getting burnt out rather than being undercooked. So these breaks helped me immensely. I stay fresh, I stay excited. Whenever I come back to play, it's 120%. I'm not coming back underprepared. In fact, the extra rest helps me to mentally freshen up. And as long as you're physically fit and you're excited mentally, all those things come together nicely and then you're able to contribute for the team's cause and that's what you want to do as a player. You don't want to hold on to a spot. You want to keep performing and keep putting in the work for the team. [On Padikkal] Outstanding knock. Right from the word go. I had plans of going aggressive in the powerplay, but when I saw him play, I was like, keep putting him back on strike and hit the odd boundary here and there. So, yeah, he completely took the game away from the opposition and I told him that one shot he hit off a slower ball over mid-on for six. At that time, I told him just keep going on. I mean, you're hitting the ball amazingly well and just keep pushing it and take the game away from the opposition. His head positions, his balance, absolutely world-class.
SRH captain, Ishan Kishan: The wicket played well after the first three to four overs. We lost early wickets and we have to take care of that. The wicket got better in the second innings. We have to be smarter with our shot selection. [Bowlers] You have to give credit to the batters, especially Virat bhai. Very important to get his wicket. We have to work harder, these mistakes are acceptable in the first game, but we have to be cautious. [Captaincy] I enjoyed it a lot, but it is IPL sometimes there are nerves but we will get better as a team. If we win games going ahead, it will be even better.
11.03pm Virat Kohli has his arms up in delight, he blows a kiss to his wife Anushka Sharma in the stands. He then gives a hug to Patidar who has played his part in this chase. All smiles in the RCB dugout, who have started IPL 2026 in some style. Phil Salt was dismissed early but Devdutt Padikkal and displayed some of the most cleanest ball striking you will ever see. He smashed a fifty off 21 balls, his fastest in the IPL and finished with 61 off 26. David Payne on IPL debut struck twice in two balls but that was a little too late. Patidar smashed 31 off 12 balls while David and Kohli remained unbeaten. Kohli finished on 69* off 38 balls as RCB won with lots to spare.
RCB on the brink of a big win
