BANGALORE ‑ Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers shared a breathtaking 157-run stand off 87 balls as Royal Challengers Bangalore secured a comfortable 45-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening match of the Indian Premier League 2016 here Tuesday.
Kohli (75 off 51) and De Villiers (82 off 42) set the stadium on fire to take RCB to 227 for four. The bowlers then defended the mammoth total comfortably on a batting beauty despite a blazing knock from SRH captain David Warner (58 off 25), restricting the opposition to 182-6 in 20 overs.
No total can be called safe here and with SRH reaching 83 for one after 8 overs, the game was very much alive. Warner was in his element after the departure of his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (8), who was bowled by Parvez Rasool. The off-spinner produced one that turned away enough to hit Dhawan's off-stump and strike on the very ball of his spell. Warner went about his business with little fuss and completed his 50 off 21 balls with a huge straight six off spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. He hit five sixes in his entertaining innings which ended with a mistimed pull off fellow Australian Shane Watson. RCB then took three quick wickets to reduce Sunrisers to 101 for five in the 12th over. Needing almost three runs a ball at one stage, Eoin Morgan (22 not out) and Ashish Reddy (32 off 18) tried their best but in vain.
Kohli and De Villiers earlier tore apart the opposition attack after the early fall of opener Chris Gayle.
The extent of hitting was such that even a usually economical Ashish Nehra felt the heat. The pacer limped off the field after bowling just 2.1 overs in which he conceded 21 runs.
Kohli's classy innings comprised seven fours and three sixes. De Villiers slammed six sixes in his breathtaking knock to add to his seven fours. Shane Watson walked in after Kohli departed and here he was, clobbering leggie Karn Sharma for three consecutive sixes before being caught behind.
Sarfaraz Khan then hammered Bhuvneshwar Kumar for four boundaries and a six in the 19th over to pile on the misery. Khan combined innovation with brute force to end with 35 off 10 balls.
Sharma had a forgettable outing in his first match of the season as he went for 57 runs in four overs.
Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman was the lone positive with the ball for Sunrisers as he ended with figures of two for 26 in four overs on his IPL debut.
Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 227 for 4 (De Villiers 82, Kohli 75, Sarfaraz 35 not out) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 182 for 6 (Warner 58, Reddy 32, Watson 2-20, Chahal 2-43) by 45 runs.
