Bengaluru, March 28 (IANS) Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) began their IPL 2026 campaign with a statement six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad on competitive cricket’s return at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Put into batting first on a two-paced pitch, SRH rode on captain Ishan Kishan’s sparkling 80 off 38 balls and a late blitz from Aniket Verma (43 off 18 balls) to post 201/9. Kishan’s fluent strokeplay, laced with eight fours and five sixes, and Aniket’s fearless cameo lifted the visitors past the 200-mark despite Jacob Duffy’s impressive debut spell of 3-22 and Romario Shepherd’s 3-54.
In reply, RCB’s top order made light work of the seemingly daunting chase. Devdutt Padikkal set the tone with a rollicking 61 off 26 balls, studded with seven fours and four sixes, while Virat Kohli, returning to playing T20 cricket after ten months, enthralled the home crowd with an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls, laced with five fours and five sixes.
Rajat Patidar chipped in with a brisk 31 off 12 balls to ensure the chase was wrapped up with 26 deliveries to spare. RCB’s innings was marked by aggressive intent from the outset. Padikkal raced to a 21-ball fifty, his fastest in the IPL, before falling to Harsh Dubey.
Kohli then took charge, producing trademark strokes – a lofted push over the bowler’s head, a whip over square leg, and a flat-batted drive through cover – to underline his class and bring up his 64th IPL fifty, as SRH’s bowling attack struggled to contain the flow of runs.
Veteran left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat struck in his very first over to give Sunrisers Hyderabad an early breakthrough, as he dismissed Phil Salt with a length ball that stopped on the batter and popped up to mid-of, who dodged a collision with his fellow fielder.
In the same over, Padikkal got going by flicking over deep square leg for six, while Kohli got off the mark with a slice over mid-off. Padikkal, however, continued his flying start by racing to 28 off 10 balls. He welcomed David Payne to the IPL with a six over cover-point, before whipping him for a four and six, as RCB reached 51 runs in just four overs.
Kohli soon joined the assault, manufacturing pace against Unadkat’s cutter and flat-batting him through cover, after having whipped him for six. With Padikkal collecting two more boundaries, RCB dominated the powerplay, as they amassed 73 runs for the loss of Salt.
Kohli then produced a trademark stroke against Eshan Malinga, lofting a length ball straight over the bowler’s head to bring the Chinnaswamy crowd to its feet. He was reprieved on 28 when Heinrich Klaasen misjudged a chance at long-on.
Padikkal continued his charge, racing to a 21-ball half-century – his fastest in the IPL – before falling for 61 – holing out to long-off against Dubey. Kohli, meanwhile, showcased his wrist power with a whip over square leg off Harshal Patel and launching Dubey down the ground for another maximum.
Rajat Patidar joined the boundary-hitting party with a crisp four through backward point and a six over long-on off Patel and Dubey. With Malinga missing his lengths, Patidar easily thumped him for a four and two sixes, as 22 runs came off the 12th over.
Though Patidar and Jitesh Sharma fell on consecutive deliveries to Payne, Kohli marched forward to bring up his fifty in 33 balls, before Tim David got two quick boundaries. Kohli then lofted, pulled and carved Patel for a six and two fours before finishing off the chase with an upper-cut through third man to complete an emphatic chase in style.
Previously, SRH endured a jittery start. The innings began with drama right from the word go as Duffy removed Abhishek Sharma when a top-edge on pull was caught by Jitesh Sharma.
Duffy came back to have Travis Head pull straight to deep square leg and had Nitish Kumar Reddy out in the same fashion to give RCB the upper hand. Kishan then took charge, blending watchful defence with calculated aggression. He rebuilt the innings with crisp strokeplay, finding gaps and punishing loose deliveries from Abhinandan Singh and Suyash Sharma.
His fifty came off just 32 balls, as he cleared boundary ropes with ease in his knock laced with eight fours and five sixes. But RCB bowlers continued to chip away, as Klaasen was caught by Phil Salt awkwardly taking a catch close to the boundary rope, though many felt he had touched the boundary rope.
After Suyash took out Salil Arora, Kishan’s dismissal for a sparkling 80 became a turning point, as Salt made a full stretch dive to his right to take a one-handed screamer off Abhinandan’s bowling.
With Harsh Dubey and Harshal Patel falling cheaply, Aniket turned the tide by launching a fearless counterattack laced with three fours and four sixes, with Shepherd being punished ruthlessly. Though Shepherd took out Aniket in the 19th over, SRH managed to cross 200-mark and set up a stiff chase for RCB under lights, which eventually became a walk in the park in front of their faithful Chinnaswamy crowd.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 201/9 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 80, Aniket Verma 43; Jacob Duffy 3-22, Romario Shepherd 3-54) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 203/4 in 15.4 overs (Virat Kohli 69 not out, Devdutt Padikkal 61; David Payne 2-35, Jaydev Unadkat 1-29) by six wickets
–IANS
nr/