Twitter Reactions: Yuzvendra Chahal spins the web around SRH batsmen after Padikkal, De Villiers score fifties

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have made a winning start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign. They defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 runs defending 163 runs. Yuzvendra Chahal was exceptional with the ball returning with the figures of 3/18 after Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers smacked half-centuries to help them post a par total in Dubai.

The 164-run chase didn’t start on a bright note for the SRH as they lost David Warner in unfortunate circumstances. Jonny Bairstow hit back one straight at Umesh Yadav woh managed to get a hand to the ball which richoted onto the stumps. From here on, Manish Pandey and Bairstow did well to build a partnership. The duo took full advantage of some wayward bowling from RCB bowlers.

They scored 71 runs together in around 10 overs but things started to change slowly as Yuzvendra Chahal came into the attack. He began his spell with a beautiful leg-spinner which Jonny Bairstow missed. The leggie bowled beautifully and it was no surprise that he broke the threatening partnership.

Manish Pandey getting out after scoring 34 runs put more pressure on Bairstow. Priyam Garg couldn’t much soon after he arrived. But the England opener was going strong when the 16th over began. Virat Kohli threw the last dice giving Chahal his final over and the leg-spinner castled Bairstow to turn the game on its head.

Mitchell Marsh getting injured while bowling hurt the SRH as he couldn’t come to bat at his usual position. Bairstow’s wicket triggered a sensational collapse. Chahal delivered a brilliant wrong’un to stun Vijay Shankar off his first balls and then Navdeep Saini snaffled two wickets in a single over to seal the deal for the RCB.

Marsh came in to bat after eight wickets were down but he bagged a golden duck and probably worsened his injury a bit more. He was not able to walk after hitting one in the air. The SRH collapsed from being nicely placed at 121/2 to 153/10 in the last over as RCB won the game by 10 runs.

AB de Villiers and Padikkal light up Dubai with their batting

The RCB, after losing the toss, got off to a great start courtesy Devdutt Padikkal who was making his IPL debut. He, along with Aaron Finch, added 90 runs for the opening wicket. Padikkal played some delightful strokes during his stay in the middle and also slammed an impressive half-century. He scored 56 off 42 deliveries before getting out to Vijay Shankar.

SRH were unlucky as their all-rounder Mitchell Marsh got injured while bowling his first over itself. Finch played second fiddle to Padikkal scoring 29 off 27 deliveries. However, Abhishek Sharma pinned him in front of the stumps. At 90/2, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli came together to stitch 33 runs together. But the latter couldn’t score more than 14 runs while his partner teed off from the other end.

Shivam Dube was sent at five to bat but it was all ABD show in the end for RCB. He smartly batted after Kohli got out and made sure that he was in the middle when the last over began. De Villiers put on an exhibition of some scintillating strokes scoring 51 off just 30 balls with 4 fours and a couple of sixes. His knock propelled RCB to 163 runs for the loss of five wickets after 20 overs.

The total proved to be enough in the end as SRH collapsed to lose their last eight wickets for 32 runs in just 26 balls and RCB earned two crucial points to begin their IPL season on a high.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

https://twitter.com/FarziCricketer/status/1308102403003015168?s=20

https://twitter.com/deeputalks/status/1308103888726183941?s=20