Royal Challengers Bengaluru 203 for 4 (Kohli 69*, Padikkal 61, Payne 2-35) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 201 for 9 (Kishan 80, Aniket 43, Duffy 3-22, Shepherd 3-54) by six wickets
After Jacob Duffy made his best Josh Hazlewood impersonation on IPL debut, Devdutt Padikkal, who had replaced him as the Impact Sub, took centerstage as Royal Challengers Bengaluru kicked off their title defence with a drubbing of Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Duffy bowled a nerveless spell, taking the new ball and delivering four overs on the trot to come away with 4-0-22-3, including the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. Duffy then put his feet up in his dressing room while Padikkal ripped the heart out of SRH's attack with a high-intent 61 off 26 balls. Virat Kohli did his thing and knocked off a fifty of his own as RCB mowed down 202 with six wickets and 26 balls to spare.
Ishan Kishan had marked his IPL captaincy debut with 80 off 38 balls, but Duffy and Padikkal combined to put that in the shade.
Duffy duffs up SRH's top order
On the opening day of the very first season of the IPL, in 2008, a certain Brendon McCullum from the south of New Zealand set the Chinnaswamy alight. On the day the IPL turned 19, another player from the south of New Zealand caused a stir at the Chinnaswamy.
After sussing out the conditions early - the new ball wasn't swinging for long - Duffy kept hitting a hard length and kept attacking the stumps to discomfit SRH's heavy-hitters. All of Abhishek, Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy were out, failing to control their pull shots off that length. During those early exchanges, some balls also stopped on batters, and Duffy used that to his advantage.
When Rajat Patidar said "Jacob" was in RCB's bowl-first XI at the toss, many would have assumed him to be Jacob Bethell, who was coming into the IPL on the back of a splendid century against India in the T20 World Cup semi-final. Instead, it was Duffy who got the nod and made it a debut to remember.
Kishan fires on IPL captaincy debut
Kishan countered Duffy's strikes, racing away to a 27-ball fifty. In the recent past, IPL captaincy has forced some India batters to dial down their aggression, but Kishan continued to bat with the freedom that was central to India winning the T20 World Cup earlier this month.
Sanjay Bangar on Kishan's decision-making skills
When the ball was doing a bit early doors, he started with a classical cover-driven four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the powerplay and then hit T20 mode when he lined up Abhinandan Singh, the other RCB debutant, for 30 off 13 balls. When RCB went to spin in the form of Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma, Kishan lined them up as well.
It felt like RCB would need something special to stop Kishan and that something special came via a one-handed screamer from Phil Salt near the point boundary at the end of the 16th over.
Aniket's cameo
Aniket Verma then produced a knock that was just as electric as Kishan's. He faced 18 balls and sent seven of those disappearing to the boundary. Aniket wasn't just about power. When Bhuvneshwar floated a slower, shorter knuckle ball, Aniket held his shape for long enough and ramped it over the keeper. After clearing the fence four times, he holed out in the penultimate over of the innings while attempting his fifth six.
RCB cruise in chase
Jaydev Unadkat struck in his first over when he removed Salt for eight, but Padikkal and Kohli then got together and turned the chase into a cakewalk. By the time their partnership ended at 101 off 45 balls, RCB's asking rate had dropped to eight.
Padikkal, who was picked ahead of RCB's new recruit Venkatesh Iyer, dashed out the blocks, hitting three fours and three sixes off his first 11 balls. He carried on to bring up his fastest IPL fifty, off 21 balls.
After the match, Kohli said that he had originally planned to attack SRH's bowlers, but after watching Padikkal middle almost everything, he decided to sit back and anchor the chase. Kohli got to his own fifty off 33 balls and rushed RCB home with a sequence of 6,4,4,4 off Harshal Patel in 15.4 overs - the quickest any team has successfully chased a target of 200-plus runs. RCB left SRH's six-man attack, nursing economy rates ranging from 9.5 to 17.5.
No Hazlewood? No problem for RCB. No Cummins? Plenty of problems already for SRH.
