IPL: Tournament openers across all seasons

2017 – SRH vs RCB, Hyderabad

Yuvraj was in full flow in the opening game of IPL 10.

The 10th edition of the IPL had something special. Each venue had its own opening ceremony before their first home game. It was the second consecutive year without CSK and RR but it would be the last without the two former champions.

The first game of the 2017 season was the repeat of 2016 final. However, RCB were without key players. Skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were nursing injuries and were to miss the first few games. Shane Watson was made the captain.

RCB won the toss and opted to bowl first. David Warner was dismissed early but Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques steadied the ship. Dhawan scored 40 while Henriques made 52. But the real impetus was given by Yuvraj Singh who blasted a 27-ball 62 (7 fours, 3 sixes). And like he did in 2016 final, Ben Cutting smashed a couple of sixes in the final over to push the score over 200. SRH posted 207 in their 20 overs.

RCB got off to a good start as Chris Gayle and Mandeep Singh added 52 inside the powerplay. But both of them were dismissed in the span of one over. Kedar Jadhav, Travis Head and Shane Watson continued the momentum but none of them could convert their starts into a big match-winning knock. Thus, RCB kept losing wickets and eventually fell 35 runs short of SRH’s total.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 207 for 4 (Yuvraj 62, Henriques 52, Chahal 1-22, Mills 1/31) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 172 (Gayle 32, Jadhav 31, Bhuvneshwar 2-27, Rashid 2-36)