De Villiers, Kohli crush Warner's Sunrisers

The Match in a Tweet: Gayle misfired, but De Villiers-Kohli lit up the Bengaluru night sky as Royal Challengers outplayed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 45 runs

The Hero: A lot has been said about AB de Villiers and his ideal batting position in limited-overs cricket. South Africa have often used him in the middle order, thereby opting for mere mortals in the top order. Meanwhile, Royal Challengers believe in unleashing the beast he is. Skipper Virat Kohli stated openly in his pre-tournament press conference that he ‘wants de Villiers to bat with freedom’.

Thus, it was no surprise when he walked out to bat at no.3, after Bhuvneshwar Kumar had bowled Chris Gayle round the legs for just one. Kohli had opened the innings himself as the Sunrisers opted to bowl after winning the toss, and thereafter it was a power-packed display at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium on the first night here of this new IPL season.

De Villiers bludgeoned the Hyderabad attack to all parts of the ground, smacking seven fours and six sixes. The first five deliveries he faced brought only two runs, yet it was only the calm before the carnage. He raced to 28 off 16 by the time the powerplay had ended, but he was just getting started. Hyderabad weren’t helped by Ashish Nehra walking off with a groin strain in the 11th over of the innings, with Bangalore placed at 1-88 at the halfway mark.

Harsh on both pace and spin, de Villiers took 38 off 14 from leggie Karn Sharma and part-timer Ashish Reddy. He brought up his half-century off only 26 balls, and nearly got his century too. But the Bangalore faithful were disappointed when he skied one off Mustafizur Rahman in the 18th over, and fell for 82 off 42.

The Supporting Role: Nowadays, it isn’t often that Kohli takes the backseat in any partnership, but with de Villiers there can be an exception. Even so, the star Indian batsman was at his immaculate best, carrying on from where he left off in the recently concluded World T20. He ran hard between the wickets, the newfound highlight of his batting prowess, and picked off boundaries at will.

Kohli scored 75 off 51 balls, reaching his half-century off 40, and putting on 157 runs for the second wicket with de Villiers. Their runs came off only 14.3 overs, and then both fell in the death leaving Bangalore in a quandary at 4-183. Shane Watson was dismissed for 19, after three lusty hits over the fence, but it was Sarfaraz Khan who put the score beyond Hyderabad’s reach. The Under-19 Indian batsman smacked 35 off 10, pushing the score to an insurmountable 4-227.

The Bull Factor: On a small ground with even shorter boundaries, perhaps 180-190 could have been a gettable target. This one though banked on Warner getting off to a blazing start and single-handedly replicating what both Kohli and de Villiers had earlier produced.

He managed the first bit in scoring 58 off 25, as Hyderabad were ahead of the asking rate for the first three overs and reached 1-56 at the end of the powerplay. Their hopes ended when Warner was caught at deep midwicket off Shane Watson in the ninth over, and from there it was a matter of when and not if.

Watson finished with 2-30 and leggie Yuzvender Chahal took 2-43, as they made short work of the Hyderabad middle order, leaving them at 5-101 in the 12th over. Ashish Reddy, Eoin Morgan and Karn Sharma then had some fun late in the innings, managing to push their score to 6-182. Victory though was always far beyond their reach.

The Stat: This was the second-highest total the Royal Challengers have managed at this ground, still falling short of 5-263 they scored back in the 2013 IPL season. Gayle had teed off that night, smacking an unbeaten 175 against Pune Warriors. In helping his side score 4-227, de Villiers has now racked up 1000 runs at the Chinnaswamy stadium playing for this franchise alone.

The Wash-Up: Bangalore have never won the IPL, but the display overnight ensures they will be one of the most hunted teams in the competition. With Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers firing up top, and Watson providing optimal balance to the playing eleven, they have sent out the right message with a dominant win in their opening game.

Hyderabad meanwhile will go back to the drawing board, wondering about a possible plan B when their bowlers are carted all over the park. However, they will be pleased with Warner’s fireworks with the bat and Rahman’s spell of 2-26 on his IPL debut.

The Next Stop: The Sunrisers will travel home to Hyderabad now and wait to welcome Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Royal Challengers will take on Delhi Daredevils on Sunday evening