Royal Challengers Bangalore 163 for 5 (Padikkal 56, de Villiers 51, Natarajan 1-34) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 153 all out (Bairstow 61, Pandey 34, Chahal 3-18) by 10 runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s inexperienced middle order hurt them big time as they collapsed spectacularly from 121 for 2 in a chase of just 164, giving Royal Challengers Bangalore a winning start to their campaign. The knowledge of such a flaky batting order will leave a big question mark against the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow, trying to hit a six in the last over of Yuzvendra Chahal, the only bowler he hadn’t got on top off. They needed just 43 off 29 at that point. ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster gave them a 76% chance of winning; any other team would have been 82% favourites but this adjustment by the tool told us what followed was not reliable.
A panic-stricken collapse followed: it involved a ramp into the helmet onto the stumps, a mid-pitch collision between the two batsmen, a Navdeep Saini coup de grace and 8 for 32 in 27 balls. Royal Challengers needed all that after they had wasted a quick start themselves to end up with what a below-par total against a stronger batting unit.
More to follow
Source: ESPN Crickinfo