IPL 2026: RCB Cruise Past SRH as Duffy and Padikkal Star at Chinnaswamy

Match 1, IPL 2026 | M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru | March 28, 2026 Result: Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6 wickets (with 26 balls remaining) Player of the Match: Virat Kohli (69 off 38)*

Eleven seats sat empty at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday night — a quiet tribute to the 11 fans who lost their lives during RCB’s title celebrations in June 2025. The stadium had been silent since. IPL 2026 brought it back to life, and RCB made sure the occasion was worth the wait.

Defending champions RCB kicked off their IPL 2026 title defence with a six-wicket demolition of Sunrisers Hyderabad, chasing down 202 in 15.4 overs with a display that left very little room for doubt. Jacob Duffy, on IPL debut, strangled SRH’s celebrated top order in the Powerplay. Devdutt Padikkal, his Impact Sub replacement, then dismantled what remained of SRH’s target with a 21-ball fifty. Virat Kohli did what Virat Kohli does in chases: controlled the tempo, picked his moments and walked off unbeaten. No Hazlewood. No problem.

First Innings: SRH 201 for 9 (20 overs)

Scorecard

Impact Sub: David Payne replaced Travis Head

Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Abhishek, 2.3), 2-23 (Head, 3.6), 3-29 (Nitish, 5.2), 4-126 (Klaasen, 13.4), 5-148 (Livingstone, 15.2), 6-152 (Arora, 15.6), 7-155 (Kishan, 16.2), 8-172 (Dubey, 17.6), 9-175 (Harshal, 18.5)

How the Innings Unfolded

RCB won the toss and sent SRH in — a decision that looked inspired almost immediately.

The IPL turned 19 on Saturday. To mark the occasion, another player from the south of New Zealand caused a stir at the Chinnaswamy, much as Brendan McCullum had done on its very first night in 2008. Jacob Duffy, born in Lumsden — population 530 — and the first Southlander to play for New Zealand since 1993, was handed the new ball and made it count in ways that belied the occasion.

After an exploratory first over, Duffy found his length and never deviated from it: hard, back of a good length, angling into the stumps. Abhishek Sharma, attempting a pull, could only top-edge to Jitesh Sharma behind the stumps. In his very next over, Duffy produced a near-identical delivery that Head could not keep down either — Phil Salt at point taking a clean catch. Nitish Kumar Reddy, promoted to No. 4 in a move that backfired, miscued off the same punishing length and offered a simple caught-and-bowled. SRH were 29 for 3 inside six overs, their three most dangerous top-order batters gone for a combined 29 runs.

Duffy bowled four overs on the trot — the opening four of the innings — and returned figures of 4-0-22-3, including 13 dot balls. He is one of only eight RCB bowlers in the tournament’s history to take three Powerplay wickets in a single match. Then, having done the hard part, he handed over to his Impact Sub replacement Padikkal and put his feet up.

Ishan Kishan, captaining SRH for the first time in the IPL after leading Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, responded the only way he knows how. He took 23 off Abhinandan Singh’s first over — 6, 4, 6 off consecutive deliveries — and rushed to his fifty off 27 balls. When RCB went to Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma in the middle overs, Kishan lined them up just as effectively. A 97-run stand with Klaasen rebuilt the innings and carried SRH past 120, and it felt as though the deficit Duffy had created was being steadily erased.

What ended it was extraordinary. Phil Salt, stationed at the point boundary in the 16th over, flung out one hand and took a screamer to dismiss Kishan for 80 — a catch that evoked memories of AB de Villiers and silenced any SRH momentum in an instant. Salt had already taken two other catches in the innings. He was having quite the evening in the field.

After Kishan fell, SRH were 155 for 7 in 16 overs with the innings losing shape. Aniket Verma ensured they crossed 200. The uncapped batter struck 43 from 18 balls with three fours and four sixes, his most destructive phase arriving against Romario Shepherd — plundering 24 runs from one Shepherd over including three maximums — before eventually falling to the same bowler in the penultimate over while attempting a fifth six. Shepherd finished with 3 for 54, expensive but incisive at the death. SRH posted 201 for 9. Whether it would be enough was answered in short order.

Second Innings: RCB 203 for 4 (15.4 overs)

Scorecard

Impact Sub: Devdutt Padikkal replaced Jacob Duffy

Did not bat: Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Salt, 1.4), 2-110 (Padikkal, 8.4), 3-163 (Patidar, 11.5), 4-163 (Jitesh, 11.6)

How the Chase Unfolded

Jaydev Unadkat struck in the first over, an away-going cutter catching Phil Salt on the crease and sending a mistimed drive to Klaasen near mid-off. RCB were 9 for 1 in 1.4 overs and SRH had a foothold. That was as good as it got.

Padikkal, batting as Impact Sub in place of Duffy, announced himself immediately. He met David Payne on his IPL debut by backing away and launching him over cover-point for six. By the end of the fourth over, RCB were 51 for 1 with Padikkal accounting for 34 of those. He had added more gears since his Rajasthan Royals days — no longer merely an opener, he was batting at No. 3 with the intent of an opener and the timing of someone very much in form. His fifty arrived in 21 balls — the second-fastest by an RCB batter against SRH in IPL history. The Powerplay closed at 76 for 1.

Kohli, who revealed afterwards that he had originally planned to attack before watching Padikkal middle almost everything, settled into the anchor role and let his partner do the damage. Their second-wicket stand of 101 came off 45 balls. When Padikkal finally holed out to Harsh Dubey at long-on for 61, the asking rate had already collapsed to eight runs per over and the match was over as a contest.

Patidar then took over the aggressor’s role, smashing 31 off 12 balls before Payne produced a length ball that cleaned him up. Payne followed it immediately with another to send Jitesh Sharma back first ball — successive wickets that brought brief life back to SRH’s bowling figures, if not to the contest. Kohli reached his fifty off 33 balls — his 64th IPL half-century — and then finished the game by hitting Harshal Patel for 6, 4, 4, 4 in the 16th over. RCB crossed the line in 15.4 overs, 26 balls to spare, with six wickets in hand. SRH’s six bowlers finished with economy rates ranging from 9.67 to 19.12.

The Match in Phases

What’s Next

No Cummins. Plenty of problems for SRH. No Hazlewood. None at all, it turns out, for RCB.

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