HYDERABAD: For a brief while, Gayle force threatened to lash the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.
The moment was significant. It was the inaugural match of IPL-10 and if the Royal Challengers Bangalore were smarting from the eight-run defeat at home in last year’s final, they had little time to show as defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad thrived on fielding lapses and good knocks by Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh to post 207 for four.
Had Chris Gayle delivered in the manner he had threatened to, it probably would have sealed the deal for RCB on a day when left-handers came to the party with the Fab Four – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag, all of whom were felicitated by the BCCI – in attendance.
The Sunrisers have built a reputation for defending totals, but with Mustafizur Rahman yet to join the team, they needed a bigger cushion on a wicket where the ball came nicely on to the bat and on a day when Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan revelled on his IPL debut with two for 36 as his team won by 35 runs after dismissing RCB for 172.
With Mandeep being the initial aggressor, taking Ashish Nehra to the cleaners in his first spell of none for 27 in two overs, Gayle bided his time before unleashing his brute force. A Deepak Hooda full toss was despatched high into the stands as RCB cruised to 48 without loss in five overs. Hooda had the last laugh, though, with Gayle pouched by skipper David Warner on the long-on fence.
Mandeep, too, looked in good touch, till he got too cute with leggie Rashid and paid the price by chopping the ball on to his stumps. A wicket off just his fourth delivery in this format was just the kind of impact SRH expected of him, but the loss of the openers had little effect on Travis Head – another leftie – and Kedar Jadhav, who was spectacularly run out by a Ben Cutting direct hit from long leg, after taking RCB to 98 for two at the halfway stage.
That was better than what SRH had posted at the halfway stage of their innings after being put in. Dhawan (40; 31b, 5×4) seized the moment after Warner fell early, as Aniket Choudhary leaked 17 runs in the sixth over and his 74-run partnership with Henriques, who played a little gem of 52 (37b, 4×3, 6×2) put them on a sound footing before Yuvraj demoralized the RCB outfit further with his breezy 62 (27b, 7×4, 6×3). It was his fastest 50 (26b) and his stand-and-deliver six over cover off Choudhary was a peach, but he had S Aravind to thank for a reprieve when on 26.
The southpaw then took two good catches as the RCB challenge fizzled out – they needed 69 from last five overs – and the Sunrisers made it a memorable outing for their fans seeing them in action for the first time after winning the title. As usual, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was brilliant upfront and at ‘the death’ and the Sunrisers certainly were switched on.
