VIRAT Kohli and AB de Villiers strung a partnership of 157 runs 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 at Bengaluru yesterday.Kohli (75 off 51) and de Villiers (82 off 42), arguably the top two batsmen in the world, set the Chinnaswamy Stadium on fire to take RCB to 227 for four.
The bowlers defended the steep total comfortably on a batting beauty despite a spectacular knock from the Sunrisers captain David Warner (58 off 25), limiting the opposition to 182 for six in 20 overs.
No total can be called safe on the batting beauty at Bengaluru and with Sunrisers reaching 83 for one in eight overs, the game was very much in the balance.
Warner was in his element after the departure of his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (8), who was bowled by Parvez Rasool.
Warner went about his business with little fuss and got to his 50 in 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 and recently retired Shane Watson.
Seeing the back of Warner was crucial for RCB and soon after his prized wicket, they 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 couldn’t succeed.
Earlier, Kohli carried on from where he left off in the World T20 as de Villiers performed his demolition act from the other end.
While Kohli, who opened with Gayle, enthralled the fans with proper cricketing stokes, the South African gave a masterclass in clean hitting.
There was little that Sunrisers skipper Warner could do to contain the two champion batsmen after he put the home team in to bat on a belter of a pitch.
The extent of hitting was such that even a usually economical Ashish Nehra felt the heat on a ground that has seen most sixes in the IPL. The pacer limped off the field after bowling just 2.1 overs in which he conceded 21 runs, leaving his troubled team short of options.