The tenth edition of Indian Premier League started off with great pomp and ceremony and a lot of eyeballs swinging round the corner with the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad up against previous season’s runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Sunrisers Hyderabad had retained the core of the team that won the title last season and are further boosted by the acquisition of a few exciting players at the player auction prior to the season. There were, in particular, talks about the performance of Afghanistan players – Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, who are appearing in the IPL for the first time. RCB, who missed out on the title last year, are crippled with injuries to their several heavyweights namely Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and KL Rahul prior to the game.
RESULT: Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers by 35 runs. It was rather a tame way for the match to end as Royal Challengers Bangalore surrendered! SRH rendered their second highest win in IPL(by runs) after 2016 in Vizag versus MI.
SRH becomes the second team after KKR to win an opening match of next IPL season after winning the IPL title in previous season
Let us sweep through the reasons that had led the Royals to lose it once again against the defending champions!
Yuvraj Singh – Yuvraj Singh’s 27-ball 62 provided SRH with the fire-power to notch 207/4 against RCB at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium. 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. If you drop the catch of a star player and when the name is Yuvraj there are fewer chances that you will be ordained with a good fate! He was declared the MAN OF THE MATCH last day and was one of the vital reasons to outcast the RCB camp in their first face-off!