Royal Challengers set 228 run target for Sunrisers

Royal Challengers Bangalore started their IPL season nine campaign with bang on Tuesday scoring a massive 227/4 in 20 overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Chinnaswami Stadium here on Tuesday.

Winning the toss, Sunrisers captain David Warner sent Royal Challengers to bat first.

Despite the early loss of Chris Gayle (1) in the second over, A.B. De Villiers (82) and skipper Virat Kohli (75) hit a half century each, while helping themselves to generous boundaries, to set the foundation for a big score.

Coming in at number three, De Villiers filled the void left by Gayle. As the crowd started chanting his name, the South African stalwart responded hitting back to back boundaries.

He cracked seven fours and six sixes to reach 82 in just 42 balls while Kohli hit seven fours and three sixes to reach his 75 in 51 balls.

Entering after the fall of Kohli in the 16th over, Shane Watson hit three successive sixes off Karn Sharma while Sarfaraz remained unbeaten at 35 after hitting five fours and two sixes in just 10 balls to take RCB to the final big total of 227.

Sunrisers' bowlers gave away 20 fours and 14 sixes. Mustafizur Rahman was the best with figures of 2/26.

Brief Scores: RCB (227/4, A.B. De Villiers 82, Virat Kohli 75; Mustafizur Rahman 2/26, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar 2/55).