IPL 2026, RCB vs SRH 1st Match Match Report, March 28, 2026

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 203 for 4 (Kohli 69*, Padikkal 61, Payne 2-35) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 201 for 9 (Kishan 80, Aniket 43, Duffy 3-22, Shepherd 3-54) by six wickets

Duffy bowled a nerveless spell, taking the new ball and delivering four overs on the trot to come away with 4-0-22-3, including the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. Duffy then put his feet up in his dressing room while Padikkal ripped the heart out of SRH’s attack with a high-intent 61 off 26 balls. Virat Kohli did his thing and knocked off a fifty of his own as RCB mowed down 202 with six wickets and 26 balls to spare.

Ishan Kishan had marked his IPL captaincy debut with 80 off 38 balls, but Duffy and Padikkal combined to put that in the shade.

Duffy duffs up SRH’s top order

On the opening night of the very first season of the IPL, in 2008, a certain Brendon McCullum from the south of New Zealand set the Chinnaswamy alight. On the day the IPL turned 19, another player from the south of New Zealand caused a stir at the Chinnaswamy.

After sussing out the conditions early – the new ball wasn’t swinging for long – Duffy kept hitting a hard length and kept attacking the stumps to discomfit SRH’s heavy-hitters. All of Abhishek, Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy were out, failing to control their pull shots off that length. During those early exchanges, some balls also stopped on batters, and Duffy used that to his advantage.

When Rajat Patidar said “Jacob” was in RCB’s bowl-first XI at the toss, many would have assumed him to be Jacob Bethell, who was coming into the IPL on the back of a splendid century against India in the T20 World Cup. Instead, it was Duffy who got the nod and made it a debut to remember.

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