IPL 2016, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: Batmen begin in Bangalore

The big three

Royals Challengers Bengaluru’s top order not just intimidates the bowlers, but infuses a sense of doomsday dread. Three of the game’s finest, with limitless powers of destructibility, one after the other, queuing up to harass bowlers. The Chris Gayle threat was seen off as early as the second ball off the second over—Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s in-swinger outside leg-stump clipping his thigh pad to whisk the bails off—to set off celebrations in the Sunrisers Hyderabad dug out. On the field, they were unsure whether to celebrate or not as de Villiers walked in to join Kohli.

Also Read: Nehra will be out for a couple of games, says Warner

AB goes ballistic

The South African had endured a fallow run by his standards, his five World T20 innings yielding just 110 runs. He hadn’t looked disturbingly out of touch, but wasn’t quite as influential as he had been in the RCB colours. Then he puts on the RCB jersey and is suddenly a man transformed. The first ball he faced, which was ferociously crunched straight to the backward point fielder, was enough indication that he was in delirious touch and as devastating mood. It was a matter of time before he exploded.

That matter of time was just four balls. Pity that it was India’s most bankable bowler in the World T20 who was at the receiving end. At times, de Villiers can be capriciously inventive. But here he sought more orthodox avenues. Nehra’s short ball was cudgeled through mid on, a difficult shot against a left-hander bowler trying to angle the ball across. Nehra retorted in the most predictable fashion—a fuller, albeit slower, ball outside the off-stump. In any case, Nehra, for all his utility and resolve, hasn’t the most devious of slower balls. De Villiers merely teed it over long on.

An intent-stamping over, if in case de Villiers felt the need to bare his intents, was wrapped off with a muscly cut through point. A similar treatment was meted out to Bhuvneshwar in the next over, and though Mustafizur did stem the flow with a comparatively frugal over that conceded only six runs, RCB gathered 49 off the six powerplay overs, that is 37 runs off the last three.

Followed a phase of calm, relative calm that is, when de Villiers was happy rotating the strike and let Kohli tuck in a few boundaries. But in the back of their mind, Sunrisers’ bowlers might have dreaded the havoc de Villiers was to wreak. Their worst fears materialised, as the South Africa launched himself fully from the 10th over, flogging Karn Sharma for successive sixes and drilling Ashish Reddy for a brace of boundaries. Moises Henriques couldn’t shackle him either. Even remotely. More agony was in store for Reddy—that he was on the field itself reflected their ill-advised auction strategies—as de Villiers flogged him for a couple of sixes. The shorter boundaries meant he needn’t even strike those shots full-bloodied.

Steady Kohli

In which world would Kohli’s 51-balled 75 be deigned merely steady? But such was the ferocity perpetuated by de Villiers at the other end that Kohli’s knock seemed considerably normal. In rendition, it was typically Kohli-esque—frantic running between the wickets interspersed with occasional boundaries, either through extra cover or midwicket. It was only in the back-end of the innings—cushioned as they were with runs and wickets—that he turned more daring. He played the perfect foil to de Villiers, and ask the dazzled Sunrisers bowlers, they would confess that Kohli was as much as a menace as de Villiers.

Lack of ideas and plans

To strangle de Villiers and Kohli in such punishing form requires copious amount of luck as well as skill. Sunrisers bowlers had neither. Apart from IPL debutant Mustafizur Rahman, none of the bowlers demonstrated the required skill-set or ingenuity to disrupt their tempo. Surprisingly, Mustafizut after his two-over spell upfront was summoned as late as the 18th over. By that time, they had already crossed 180. Rahman, though, impressed, accounting for de Villiers and Shane Watson off successive deliveries. They also badly missed a quality spinner. The best they had to offer was Railways leggie Karn Sharma, whose four overs were monstered for 57 runs. And it was not just Kohli and de Villiers who tore into them, even Sarfaraz Khan, who was especially severe on a listless Bhuvneshwar, plundered them with a 10-ball 35.

Warner’s effort goes futile

Chasing down 228 called for the near miraculous. Only twice has any team scored more to win a match. Much hinged on David Warner playing throughout. For 8.3 overs, he offered some hope for Sunrisers, brutalising the bowlers. But in the 8.4th, he perished to his now-retired compatriot Shane Watson. Thereafter, they caved in, as was expected. All Eoin Morgan and Ashish Reddy did was to reduce the margin of the defeat.