Bengaluru, 28 Mar

Devdutt Padikkal’s 26-ball-61 crusted with class and Virat Kohli’s masterly unbeaten half-century powered Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a dominant six-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2026’s season-opening match here on Saturday.

Padikkal and Kohli (69 not out, 38b) stitched 101 runs off a mere 45 balls for the second wicket stand, lending meat to RCB’s successful chase of 202 in just 15.4 overs. The hosts finished at 203/4 to start their title defence in spectacular style.

After Phil Salt was jettisoned early, Kohli and Padikkal, in particular, treated the Chinnaswamy crowd to a brilliant batting exhibition.

Their approach to batting was as different as chalk and cheese. Padikkal was all wrists, feet and thunderous cuts while Kohli dished out his favourite drives, shots on the ‘V’ and the money shot — the swat flick.

Padikkal oozed the left-hander’s class even while plundering 6, 4, 6 off pacer David Payne and later while biffing spinner Harsh Dubey for a 4 and 6 off successive deliveries.

The Karnataka batter fetched his fifty off just 21 balls with a four off Harshal Patel.

Kohli brought out his swat, a shot with minimum feet movement and shot arm-throw, against pacers Jaydev Unadkat and Eshan Malinga as runs flowed thick and fast — team 50 came in fourth over, Power Play produced 76 and 100 cascaded in just 8.1 overs.

But the free-flowing alliance was snapped when Padikkal was holed out to Heinrich Klaasen, who had earlier spilled Kohli on 28 off RCB alumni Harshal, at long-on.

Kohli soon reached his half-century off 33 balls with a single off left-arm seamer Payne.

Skipper Rajat Patidar did his bit for a smooth chase, waltzing to a 12-ball 31.

The consecutive dismissals of Patidar and Jitesh Sharma were just minor speed-breakers in an otherwise easy journey, laced by Kohli's sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4 off Harshal.

Earlier, stand-in-captain Ishan Kishan smashed a blazing fifty as Sunrisers resisted Jacob Duffy's excellent spell but only managed a slightly below-par 201 for nine.

Kishan (80, 38b, 8x4, 5x6) and his 97-run stand with Heinrich Klaasen (31) for the fourth wicket was the core of SRH innings.

But the match had a rather different start once Patidar asked Hyderabad to bat first on a pitch that was deprived of top-flight cricket for nearly 10 months.

The pitch would have been a rather unknown commodity and chasing was a better option in that context.

Duffy’s spell (4-0-22-3) vindicated that thought too.

The Kiwi pacer used his height well to generate considerable bounce off the track and Abhishek Sharma (7) looked frustrated not being able to free his arm despite carving Duffy for a six over backward point.

The left-hander, who has always been uncomfortable against short balls, soon fell to his frustrations as his awkward pull off Duffy ended in the big gloves of Jitesh Sharma.

Earlier, RCB had burned a DRS review for caught behind appeal against Abhishek off Duffy in the very first over.

Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy too failed to control their pull shots off Duffy as SRH slipped to 29 for three in 4.2 overs.

But Kishan was never really bogged down by the situation or opposition, batting with oodles of bravado.

The left-hander brought up his fifty in 27 balls with a four off leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, and his blitz contained some sparkling hits.

Abhinandan Singh bore the brunt of his wrath, as Kishan carted him for 6, 4, 6 and later spinner Krunal Pandya was hammered for two sixes in an over.

A mighty blow over third man off Abhinandan carried Kishan to 80, and century was there for his taking.

But the pacer had the last laugh as Kishan fell to a stunning one-handed, diving catch by Phil Salt near deep backwardpoint.

This could definitely be high on the list of season’s best catches.

Kishan’s dismissal robbed SRH some steam in the death overs, despite Aniket Verma (43, 19 balls), who was dropped by Kohli on 26 off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, striking a handy knock down the order.