Who said what: IPL 2020, Match 3 – Sunrisers Hyderabad v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) scripted a 10-run victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to kick off their IPL 2020 campaign after fifties from young, local, left-handed opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal and talismanic South African batsman AB de Villiers and a commendable fightback from their bowlers. Put in to bat, RCB posted a total of 163, thanks to a good start from the openers and late flourish from de Villiers. In reply, SRH were well on course for victory before losing their last 8 wickets for 32 runs.
Here are the top quotes on the game:
Devdutt Padikkal (after the 1st innings): It was pretty difficult to bat on. We have a good total now. Looking forward to defending. It was great to get the half-century out of the way. It was the first game and I wanted to start off well. I am happy to have done that. So happy to be training with Kohli. I was just eating his ears trying to pick up as much as possible. He said who you face doesn’t matter as long as you have confidence in yourself. I enjoyed batting with Finch. I was comfortable from the word go batting alongside him. It’s going to be a tough target to chase down.
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David Warner, SRH skipper: I can’t remember the last time I was out like that. There’s four things that happened in this game that I have never seen before. A lot of courage for Mitchell (Marsh) to go out there and try. It doesn’t look great for him, can’t put any weight on his leg. Hopefully it isn’t too bad, it was quite painful for him, so fingers crossed. We had the run chase in control and we knew that we had to go after their bowlers in the end. Probably the last over of Chahal was the turning point out there. We have to go back to the drawing board; we obviously can’t fix what happened today but we have to go back and work hard before our next game in Abu Dhabi. There are talking points but the guys know what they have to do. Exciting times for Indian cricket and I can’t wait to see what the young players produce.
Virat Kohli, RCB skipper: It’s amazing and last year we were on the other side of the results. We kept our composure tonight. Yuzi came in and changed the game for us. Tonight he showed that if you have skill, you can get purchase on any wicket. The way he came in and bowled attacking lines, he was the one in my opinion who changed the game. We started really well and Devdutt was really good and Finch was good too. AB batting in the last three overs helped us push it past 160 and as I said, the fact that we didn’t let negativity slip into the bowling group was a great sign and Dube bowling those three overs was really good to see.
AB de Villiers: Very happy. Worked very hard for that win. For a change we are on the right side of a close game early in the season As a 36-year-old you do doubt yourself, but we did work very hard in the training and I am very happy with the basics that we have done. Very competitive, the young players coming and looking like international players is really exciting to watch. I have taken Josh (Josh Phillippe) under my wing like Mark Boucher took me under his wing. Padikkal is a shy and quiet guy but I don’t have to say much really, he looks like a really good talent.
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Yuzvendra Chahal, Player of The Match: When I bowled my first over, I realized I need to bowl stump-to-stump line and backed myself. At one point they were batting well and I was trying to bowl loopy ones and wide of the reach which helped in building pressure. When I bowled to Pandey I was trying to outside off-stump with that field, but decided to bowl within the stumps because it is difficult to hit through the leg-side and with Bairstow I bowled little fuller and outside leg so that it becomes tough for him to target the leg-side with the turn away. When Vijay (Shankar) came Virat and AB told me to go for a googly and it worked. I put some mud on my hands to make sure there is no dew.