Match report
Royal Challengers began their IPL 2017 campaign with a 35-run defeat to the defending champions, Sunrisers Hyderabad. RCB’s lack of firepower in the middle order, partnerships and the likes of Chris Gayle (32), Mandeep Singh (24), Travis Head (30), and Kedar Jadhav (31) not converting their starts into substantial scores cost Shane Watson and co. dear in the opening match of the 10th edition of the IPL.
Make no mistake, RCB, through their openers Gayle and Mandeep, began well in pursuit of 208 and gave the feeling that we could have a close contest to kick off the season. But Rashid Khan, the first Afghanistan cricketer to play in the IPL and the debutant for Sunrisers, dismissed Mandeep in the last over of the powerplay, to dent the visitors’ chances. Warner, then, took the gamble of bowling Deepak Hooda, a part-time off-spinner, in the seventh over and prized out the huge wicket of Chris Gayle.
Head and Jadhav put together an attractive third-wicket partnership of 56 in 5.1 overs and while these two were together, the home crowd was quiet and the match, once again, seemed to be heading RCB’s way. But a piece of brilliance from Ben Cutting put Sunrisers in the ascendancy once again and the hosts didn’t look back after Jadhav’s run-out dismissal. Cutting, with a flat and quick throw, hit the stumps from deep square leg and an ambling Jadhav was well short of his ground. Head was dismissed soon after and SRH marched towards the victory in the 1st match of IPL 2017. The RCB innings was a proper tale of the top-order getting starts but not capitalising on them and playing big innings, which, essentially, was the need of the hour.
Sunrisers’ innings was in quite a stark contrast to RCB’s. The hosts, who were put into bat by Watson, enjoyed substantial partnerships throughout and at no stage in their innings, did SRH have a weak link in the middle. Warner did fall early, but Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques put together 74 runs from 53 balls for the second wicket and provided a solid platform for the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Deepak Hooda in the middle order.
Worth mentioning here is the fact that the SRH batsmen were aided by some shoddy fielding from RCB, who dropped several catches and burdened themselves with extra runs to chase down in the second innings.
Yuvraj played a scintillating knock of 62 (27) and made his fastest half-century in IPL cricket, off 23 balls. He judged the length of each ball really well and was timing his shots superbly. Barely a ball was mis-hit by Yuvraj, who could have been out when he was on 26 but for Sreenath Aravind dropping what was a fairly easy catch at deep square leg. Yuvraj’s innings, again, was a treat to the eye and thrilled the full house at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.
Moises Henriques played a great knock as well, of 52, and his partnerships with Dhawan and Yuvraj were pivotal to SRH making 207/4 batting first.
Sunrisers’ bowlers, particularly Ashish Nehra, didn’t enjoy a great night with the ball. But the second-string RCB batting line-up and the formidable total (207) posted by the batsmen helped the bowlers close the match out on what was a great pitch for batting. The ball came nicely onto the bat and as a batsman, you could hit through the line.
Match facts
IPL 2017, 1st match: Sunrisers vs Royal Challengers
Date and time: April 5, 8:00 PM IST
Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad
Sunrisers vs Royal Challengers, 1st Match Scorecard
RCB and Shane Watson won the toss and opted to field first.
Sunrisers: David Warner*, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh, Deepak Hooda, Naman Ojha, Ben Cutting, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Ashish Nehra, and Bipul Sharma
Royal Challengers: Shane Watson*, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Travis Head, Kedar Jadhav (WK), Stuart Binny, Sachin Baby, Aniket Choudhary, Sreenath Aravind, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Tymal Mills
Scores
Sunrisers 207/4 (Yuvraj 62, Henriques 52; Binny 1/10 and Chahal 1/22)
Royal Challengers 172/10 (Gayle 32; Bhuvneshwar 2/27 and Rashid 2/36)
Result: Sunrisers Hyderabad began their title defence with a comfortable 35-run victory in the 1st match of IPL 2017, against Royal Challengers. Yuvraj Singh was the man-of-the-match for his scintillating 27-ball 62, a knock which included seven fours and three sixes.
| Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Innings | ||||||
| Batsmen and dismissal | Runs scored | No. of 4s | No. of 6s | Strike rate | ||
| David Warner
caught Mandeep, bowled Choudhary |
14 (8) | 2 | 1 | 175.00 | ||
| Shikhar Dhawan
caught Baby, bowled Binny |
40 (31) | 5 | 0 | 129.03 | ||
| Moises Henriques
caught Baby, bowled Chahal |
52 (37) | 3 | 2 | 140.54 | ||
| Yuvraj Singh
bowled Mills |
62 (27) | 7 | 3 | 229.62 | ||
| Deepak Hooda
not out |
16 (12) | 0 | 1 | 133.33 | ||
| Ben Cutting
not out |
16 (6) | 0 | 2 | 266.66 | ||
| Batsmen who didn’t bat | Naman Ojha, Bipul Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, and Rashid Khan | |||||
| Extras | 7 (1 no-ball, 5 wides and 1 leg bye) | |||||
| SRH’s total | 207/4 in 20 overs, at 10.35 runs per over | |||||
| SRH’s fall of wickets | 19/1 (Warner, 1.4), 93/2 (S Dhawan, 10.3), 151/3 (Henriques, 15.2), and 190/4 (Yuvraj, 18.4) | |||||
| Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) Bowling | ||||||
| Bowlers | Overs | Dots bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Economy rate | |
| Tymal Mills | 4 | 11 | 31 | 1 | 7.75 | |
| Aniket Choudhary | 4 | 5 | 55 | 1 | 13.75 | |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 4 | 5 | 22 | 1 | 5.50 | |
| Sreenath Aravind | 3 | 2 | 36 | 0 | 12.00 | |
| Shane Watson | 3 | 3 | 41 | 0 | 13.66 | |
| Travis Head | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 11.00 | |
| Stuart Binny | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 10.00 | |
| RCB Innings (target: 208 at 10.40 runs per over) | ||||||
| Batsmen and dismissal | Runs scored | No. of 4s | No. of 6s | Strike rate | ||
| Chris Gayle
caught Warner, bowled Hooda |
32 (21) | 2 | 3 | 152.38 | ||
| Mandeep Singh
bowled Rashid |
24 (16) | 5 | 0 | 150.00 | ||
| Travis Head
caught Yuvraj, bowled Rashid |
30 (22) | 3 | 0 | 136.36 | ||
| Kedar Jadhav
run out Cutting |
31 (16) | 4 | 1 | 193.75 | ||
| Shane Watson
caught Henriques, bowled Nehra |
22 (17) | 1 | 1 | 129.41 | ||
| Sachin Baby
caught Henriques, bowled Bipul |
1 (3) | 0 | 0 | 33.33 | ||
| Stuart Binny
caught Yuvraj, bowled Bhuvneshwar |
11 (10) | 0 | 1 | 110.00 | ||
| Sreenath Aravind
bowled Nehra |
0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Tymal Mills
caught Warner, bowled Bhuvneshwar |
6 (3) | 0 | 1 | 200.00 | ||
| Yuzvendra Chahal
run out Chris Jordan (substitute) |
3 (7) | 0 | 0 | 42.85 | ||
| Aniket Choudhary
not out |
6 (2) | 0 | 1 | 300.00 | ||
| Extras | 6 (1 no-ball, 4 wides and 1 leg bye) | |||||
| RCB’s total | 172/10 in 19.4 overs, at 8.86 runs per over | |||||
| RCB’s fall of wickets | 52/1 (Mandeep, 5.4), 60/2 (Gayle, 6.3), 116/3 (Jadhav, 11.4), 126/4 (Head, 12.5), 128/5 (Baby, 13.4), 154/6 (Binny, 16.5), 156/7 (Watson, 17.3), 156/8 (Aravind, 17.4), 164/9 (Mills, 18.5), 172/10 (Chahal, 19.4) | |||||
| SRH’s Bowling | ||||||
| Bowlers | Overs | Dots bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Economy rate | |
| Ashish Nehra | 4 | 8 | 42 | 2 | 10.50 | |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 4 | 12 | 27 | 2 | 6.75 | |
| Ben Cutting | 3.4 | 10 | 35 | 0 | 9.54 | |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 8 | 36 | 2 | 9.00 | |
| Deepak Hooda | 1 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 7.00 | |
| Moises Henriques | 2 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 10.00 | |
| Bipul Sharma | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4.00 | |