Twitter Reactions: Vintage Yuvraj, bowlers set-up Sunrisers victory

If the first game is anything to go by, one can expect a lot of entertainment over the next month and a half. Sunrisers delivered a clinical performance on the first night of the tournament to clinch an easy 35-run win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Sunrisers were put in to bat by stand-in captain Shane Watson as Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium was a good chasing ground last season. All eyes were on Tymal Mills when he was ready to bowl the first ball of the IPL-10. He bowled with pace and returned to bowl those back of the hand slower deliveries in his second spell.

Warner wanted to put pressure on the debutant, Aniket Chaudhary. He hit the first six of the tournament – a huge hit over mid-wicket on a free hit. Aniket, though, had the final say as he sent Warner back the very next ball. Dhawan then took it upon himself to push the scoring and smashed Watson for 4 boundaries in a single over.

The star of the night – Yuvraj Singh – gave the right impetus to SRH’s innings. He took everyone back in time as he swatted bowler all around the park in his 27-ball 62. The shot of the night was easily his baseball-like hit off Tymal Mill’s slower one, which everyone struggled to pick. The only bowler who bowled well for RCB was leg-spinner Chahal who returned with 1/22 in his four overs. Mills too had reasonable figures of 1/31 in his debut IPL game.

Set a target of 208, RCB innings got off to the perfect start when Gayle and Mandeep added 50 runs within the first 6 overs. Another debutant: Rashid Khan, arrested the RCB momentum by picking his debut wicket in the form of Mandeep in his very first over. Gayle struck 3 towering sixes but made the long walk back in the next over of Mandeep’s dismissal for a 21-ball 32. Travis Head and Kedar Jadhav took RCB’s fight forward but could only manage cameo innings’ of 30 and 31 respectively. One of the top 4 batters had to play a big innings if RCB were to get anywhere close to the target. RCB’s last hope was punctured when Watson skied one up off veteran bowler Nehra.

In the end, RCB had too much to get. RCB’s fielding lapses might just have cost them the game as they dropped Yuvraj on 26. Ashish Nehra, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all took 2 wickets apiece.

We have got a list of the best reactions on Twitter during the first game of the IPL-10: