Devdutt Padikkal was handed a debut, and he didn’t disappoint. The youngster timed the ball perfectly throughout his 56-run knock. Mitchell Marsh got injured early on in the match, which hampered the Sunrisers team in batting and bowling. After a couple of quick wickets, Kohli and de Villiers were batting together.
Kohli tried to change gears after settling in but mistimed the ball and was caught out. His partner in crime, on the hand, hit a magnificent half-century, which took RCB to a decent total of 162 runs.
David Warner and Jonny Bairstow came out to bat for the Orange Army. David Warner was extremely unlucky during his run out as the ball deflected off the bowler’s hand onto the stumps. Jonny Bairstow was the star of Hyderabad’s innings. The English wicket-keeper batsman was looking unstoppable, and with Manish Pandey, he had found an able partner as well.
RCB still had one trick up their sleeve, and that was Yuzvendra Chahal. The leg spinner got the better of both Pandey and Bairstow, before bowling a googly to take Vijay Shankar’s wicket. Sunrisers were 121-2 at one point but collapsed like a house of cards after Bairstow’s wicket. They had another unfortunate run-out towards the end of the match and were finally bowled out at 153.
Here are 3 things we learned from this match:
SRH’s middle-order woes continue:
In David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, Sunrisers Hyderabad has an opening pair like no other. If needed, they can also call upon Kane Williamson, and Manish Pandey is set to make the 1 down position his own after some solid performances last season. But, their middle order and lower middle order is bereft of excellent and experienced batsmen.
Vijay Shankar has shown promise but is far too inconsistent. The rest of their batsmen are young Indians who, at times, find it hard to deliver under pressure. Hyderabad has a good bowling attack overall, but if their top order doesn’t score many runs, they will find it very hard to win games consistently because their middle order looks very thin.
Padikkal shines on his debut:
Parthiv Patel has been a solid player wherever he has gone and played for. He might not be the strongest player but can get his team off to a good start. There were talks of Indian youngster Devdutt Padikkal being ahead of him in the pecking order, and that’s precisely what happened. The Karnataka batsman was a part of RCB’s squad last season and couldn’t find himself in the playing XI.
Padikkal opened the innings with Finch and looked in good touch during his innings. The 20-year-old sent the ball to the fence 8 times during his half-century. He has not only scored a half century on his IPL debut but has also scored a half century on his List A, first-class and T20 debuts. Watch out for him during this season and the coming years as well.
Battle of the leg spinners:
Both SRH and RCB are blessed with 2 of the best leg spinners in the current scene of cricket. While the Orange Army has Afghani leggie, Rashid Khan, in their ranks, Virat Kohli’s men are equipped with Yuzvendra Chahal. Both of them are successful on the international stage and have been prolific in the IPL.
Rashid Khan is arguably one of the best T20 bowlers in the world right now, but Chahal came up trumps in this match. One downside about Rashid is that teams have decided to play out his 4 overs, which has seen his wicket-taking ability take a slight hit. Chahal, on the other hand, looks to attack the batsmen. He picked up the crucial wickets of Manish Pandey and Jonny Bairstow and was heavily involved in his team’s victory.
Rashid Khan’s figures: 4-0-31-0
Yuzvendra Chahal’s figures: 4-0-18-3
