Duffy's dream debut hands RCB a record-breaking opening night
A 31-year-old from Otago playing his first IPL game was never supposed to steal the show. But Jacob Duffy walked out at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday night, ripped through Sunrisers Hyderabad's top order inside the powerplay, and walked off with the Player of the Match award in his back pocket.
Three wickets in four overs on debut
Duffy dismissed Travis Head for 11, Abhishek Sharma for 7, and Nitish Kumar Reddy for 1, all inside the first six overs. His figures of 3 for 22 from four overs set the tone for everything that followed. He was only in the playing XI because Josh Hazlewood is injured, which makes the performance even sweeter.
RCB's other bowling hero was Romario Shepherd, who picked up 3 for 54. Between Duffy's precision and Shepherd's death-overs wickets, SRH were held to 201 for 9 despite Ishan Kishan's brutal 80 off 38 balls and Aniket Verma's quickfire 43 off 18.
Kohli and Padikkal tear apart the chase
A target of 202 looked competitive. It lasted 15.4 overs. Devdutt Padikkal smashed 61 off 26 balls with seven fours and four sixes, reaching his fifty in just 21 deliveries. Virat Kohli, playing his 19th consecutive IPL season for the same franchise, stayed unbeaten on 69 off 38 with five fours and five sixes. The pair put on 101 for the second wicket and turned the chase into a procession.
RCB's 15.4-over chase broke the previous record for the fastest successful pursuit of a 200-plus target in IPL history, beating the 15.5 overs Rajasthan Royals needed against Gujarat Titans last season.
A debut born from someone else's misfortune
Duffy earned his T20 World Cup spot with New Zealand earlier this year and came into the IPL as a relatively unknown quantity. He was bought at his base price of 2 crore at the auction, a footnote signing while the headlines went elsewhere. Hazlewood's injury opened the door and Duffy kicked it off its hinges.
The defending champions are off to the perfect start. SRH, who gave the captaincy to interim skipper Ishan Kishan with Pat Cummins still recovering from a back injury, will need their top order to show more fight next time out.
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