Bengaluru, March 29
RCB debutant Jacob Duffy, who took three wickets to help his team beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in IPL 2026, said his success came from learning from Josh Hazlewood and bowling consistently on a hard length.
Duffy, who won the Player of the Match, also praised the bounce of the Bengaluru pitch, credited his captain Rajat Patidar for giving him the opportunity, and emphasised sticking to what works to maintain pressure on the opposition.
"Awesome, hell of a way to start the campaign. Great win. [Doing the Hazlewood role] I am just keeping the big fellow's seat warm. I just wanted to bowl the hard lengths, just keep the ball there. Even better that I got to walk off the field after seven overs. We talked about the lengths and stuff, what works here," Jacob Duffy said after winning the Player of the Match Award.
"Just build on what Josh did. [Learning from the T20 WC] I am sick of bowling to Abhishek for sure. Haven't seen such bounce in India before as we saw here. But that was the case today. [Four overs on the bounce] Just Rajat said you go and I happily obliged, When the ball is hard and new is the best time to bowl on this surface," Duffy concluded.
Coming to the match, Sunrisers Hyderabad staged a strong recovery from an early collapse to post a competitive 201/9 against the defending champions in the IPL 2026 opener.
After losing three quick wickets of Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Reddy in the power play, a brilliant knock from Ishan Kishan and key contributions down the order powered Hyderabad past the 200-run mark.
Ishan Kishan, who is the stand-in skipper for Hyderabad, hammered 80 runs off 38 deliveries, including eight fours and five sixes. Ankiet Verma played a blistering knock of 18-ball 43, including three fours and four maximums.
For the defending champions, Jacob Duffy (3/22) and Romario Shepherd (3/54) scalped three wickets apiece. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/31), Abhinandan Singh (1/38), and Suyash Sharma (1/28) bagged one wicket apiece.
In response, Kohli played a match-winning, unbeaten knock of 69 off 38 deliveries, including five fours and as many sixes.
Apart from him, Impact Player Devdutt Padikkal hammered 61 off 26 balls, with seven fours and four sixes.
Skipper Rajat Patidar played a blistering knock of 12 balls for 31, with three sixes and two fours as Bengaluru won the high-scoring contest by four wickets.
The defending champions also chase down the fastest 200-plus runs in the history of IPL. Bengaluru chase down the 202-run target in 15.4 overs.
- ANI
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