Playing in his backyard, Padikkal looked in complete control. Fresh from an impressive domestic season, in which he played a key role in taking Karnataka to the Ranji Trophy final, the left-handed batsman carried that form into the night.Walking in after the early dismissal of Phil Salt (8), Padikkal wasted little time in settling down. Jaydev Unadkat’s trademark flick of six runs set the tone. His bowling against left-arm fast bowler David Payne was particularly impressive, including a six off his knees.Often criticized for staying at the crease, Padikkal showed better footwork and brought up his half-century with a brilliant straight drive, while Kohli provided excitement from the other end. Padikkal, looking to play a big innings against Harsh Dubey, failed to get past the mid-off region as Klaasen took a regulation catch. Kohli, who was on 30 when the partnership ended, changed gears. He carried on with the innings amid a brief wobble, with captain Rajat Patidar (31) and Jitesh Sharma (0) falling to consecutive balls from Payne. When the finish line was in sight, Kohli and Tim David (No. 16) completed it without any problem.

Duffy, Ishaan Show

The initial narrative was of the debutants – one dominating the IPL, the other leading a team for the first time in the competition.RCB fast bowler Jacob Duffy made a spectacular debut in style, demolishing SRH’s top order. But Ishan, who was captaining SRH for the first time, stood strong against the initial setbacks and counter-attacked, scoring 80 runs in 38 balls to get his team out of trouble.SRH recovered from early setbacks and credited their total to Ishan’s composure and late breakthrough from Aniket Verma (43 runs from 18 balls).Duffy made an immediate impact. Leading the bowling attack in the absence of Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood, the New Zealand pacer broke the back of SRH’s explosive top order in his second over. Abhishek Sharma gave wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma a chance to pull. Five balls later, Travis Head fell to a short ball, which went straight to Phil Salt at deep backward square leg. Nitish Reddy followed soon after with another short delivery to Abhinandan Kumar at midwicket.While wickets were falling around him, Ishan maintained his composure. The left-handed batsman found his rhythm against medium pacer Abhinandan Kumar in the sixth over and signaled a change of pace by scoring 6, 4, 6.Fresh from a strong T20 World Cup campaign, Ishan maintained that form with ease. Ishan found an able ally in Heinrich Klaasen (31) and the two made a vital partnership of 97 runs for the fourth wicket.Just as Ishan looked set for a century, his 74-minute stay ended in dramatic fashion with Salt taking a brilliant one-handed catch at the boundary to become Abhinandan’s first IPL wicket.