PTI
Bengaluru, April 12
Virat Kohli and A B de Villiers shared a breathtaking 157-run stand 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 here today.
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 blazing knock from Sunrisers captain David Warner (58 off 25), limiting the opposition to 182 for six in 20 overs.
No total can be called be safe on the batting beauty here and with Sunrisers reaching from 83 for one in eight overs, the game was very much alive.Warner was in his full elements after the departure of his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (8), who was bowled by Parvez Rasool. The off-spinner produced one just turned away enough to hit Diahann's off stump and strike on the very ball of his spell.
Warner went about his business with little fuss and completed his 50 off 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 and de Villiers tore apart the opposition attack with a scintillating stand after the early fall of opener Chris Gayle.
Kohli carried on from where he left off in the World T20 as de Villiers performed his demolition act from the other end.
Both of them batting together was a sheer treat for a noisy crowd gathered at the ground. 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 what 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.
