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BENGALURU: 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 on Monday.
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. (PTI)
score board
Royal Challengers Bangalore innings
CH Gayle b Kumar 01
V Kohli* b Kumar 75
AB de Villiers c Morgan b Mustafizur Rahman 82
SR Watson c †Ojha b Mustafizur Rahman 19
SN Khan not out 35
KM Jadhav† not out 08
Extras 07
Total 227/4
Sunrisers Hyderabad innings
DA Warner* c Milne b Watson 58
S Dhawan b Parvez Rasool 08
MC Henriques c Parvez Rasool b Milne 19
NV Ojha† c de Villiers b Chahal 00
DJ Hooda c de Villiers b Chahal 06
EJG Morgan not out 22
A Ashish Reddy b Watson 32
KV Sharma not out 26
Extras 11
Total 182/6
