Virat Kohli showered rich praise on Yuzvendra Chahal as the wrist-spinner scripted Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) 10-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the third game of IPL 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday (September 21).
Chasing 164 to win, SRH were cruising before Chahal dismissed Manish Pandey (34 off 33 balls), Jonny Bairstow (61 off 43 balls) and Vijay Shankar (0) in quick succession to induce a collapse.
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Chahal finished with the figures of 3/18 in his stipulated four overs as RCB eventually bundled out SRH for 153 in 19.4 overs.
“It's amazing to be honest. Last year, we were on the other side of the result, 6-nil to start. It is nice to be 1-nil. We kept our composure tonight,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
“Yuzi (Chahal) comes in and completely changed the game for us. Not many spinners got much out of the pitch, but tonight he showed that you can turn it if you have it in your wrists. He showed he can get purchase on any wicket. The way he came in and bowled attacking lines, he changed the game,” he added.
Earlier, RCB posted 163/5 in 20 overs on the back of debutant Devdutt Padikkal’s 42-ball 56 and AB de Villiers’ dazzling 30-ball 51.
Talking about his side's batting, Kohli said, “We started really well. Devdutt was really good on debut, Finchy as well. AB batting in the last three overs helped us push it past 160.”
Asked if he thought 163 was a good enough total to defend, he replied, “When you lose two in two, you have to consolidate. If not for two in two, you were looking at maybe 10-20 runs more.”
RCB will face Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in their next game in Dubai on September 24.
(With PTI inputs)
