#playbold

It was always going to be Royal challengers Bangalores batting versus the sunrisers Hyderabad . The Chinnaswamy stadium has traditionally been a batsmans paradise and it didn't disappoint this time . David Warner won the toss and chose to field first and I guess that's the one and only point he won . Chris Gayle who has a walk and persona reminscent of Undertaker from WWF walked out along with Virat Kohli - the numero uno of Indian cricket leading from the front literally , figuratively and metaphorically to the loud din of the trumpets at  Chinnaswamy stadium. Chris was done in by a Bhuvanesh kumar special which scraped his thigh pad and poked his stumps .. The undertaker made the long way back to the shed .. And then the ground reverbated with the chants of " AB , AB " . AB is quite popular in Bangalore for his batting pyrotechnics and the way he defies geometry hitting the ball all over the park is a sight for sore eyes . Kohli and AB launched into the sunrisers bowling .. Helped in no small measure by Nehraji returning back to the sunrisers shed injured in the middle of an eventful over. Spinners and Seamers ( if we can call them that in this format of the game ) were treated with utter disdain . Ab using the batting crease , getting his shape ,body balance just right whilst Kohli ran the singles hard and hit the big ones clean and straight . It was a batting display straight out of a movie - poetry in motion in the fastest format of the game . Kohli & AB set the foundation for a strong total allowing the rest of the players to come and express themselves . The pocket sized Sarfaraz khan ( yeah good things in life come in small packets ) capitalised on the opportunity , he expressed himself and how .. Bisecting the fielders & finding the gaps at will during the business end of the first innings taking the team total to 227. This format is extremely unforgiving to bowlers but spare a thought for mustafizur Rahman . It was his bowling guile versus the rcb batsmen with the wily bowler getting two wickets off consecutive balls with his change of pace This lad will do well on batting pitches with his versatility






The south paws - shikhar Gambhir and David Warner had to come to the party and freeload on the shots to chase 228. Shikhar was deceived by a straighter one from the spinner Pervez before he could get his eye in . David as is his wont smoked a few sixes scoring a quick fire fifty  but then a short ball bowled by arguably the best all rounder who can bat at any position did him in Holing out a fielder in the deep . Virat leading the challengers beautifully ... Fielding like a panther inspiring the challengers around him . He brought in the spinners , making bowling changes showing the same kind of urgency he displayed while batting . The leg & off spinners chawal & Rasool got into the act , getting hit for the odd four and sixes buying their wickets with a mean line on a batting wicket. 228 is always a big score to chase and with wickets falling in a hurry . The inevitable had to happen .. The sunrisers 
needed a big partnership and with wickets falling in a hurry it was always going to be difficult .. The sunrisers ended up losing  by 45 runs.

The Royal challengers played true to their motto in the first game of the 2016 season - play bold . Let the drum rolls begin ..