SRH emerge victorious in the IPL opener

It was an amazing start to the most awaited franchisee tournament of the world. The two best teams of last year?s edition, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore locked horns in Hyderabad this evening and just like the finals last year, Sunrisers Hyderabad emerged victorious by 25 runs. Here are the talking points from the match

• Shikhar Dhawan?s return to form

Although it is too early to say anything about a batsman?s form, judging by just a single match, but looking at the shots Dhawan played, one can start to believe that he is getting his touch back. Dhawan struck a beautiful 40 from 31 balls to get the SRH innings back on track after suffering from Warner?s innings early in the match. He smashed 5 fours out of which some were some delightful drives and lay the platform for someone like Yuvraj Singh to come and smash the bowlers from the start.

• Rashid Khan, the first Afghanistani to feature in IPL

The 18 year old Afghanistan leg-spinner, due to his recent exploits in the ICC tournaments, became the first Afghanistan player to play an IPL match. And what an amazing debut it was for the youngster. He came inside the power play, a time when Chris Gayle and Mandeep Singh were taking apart the bowling attack of SRH. Although he was put away for a boundary on the second ball, that didn?t dampen his confidence and with a slider got Mandeep Singh?s wicket in his very first over. Then he fooled Travis Head with his googly to get his second wicket of the game. He ended the match with respectable figures of 2 wickets giving away 36 runs in his four overs taking his side towards victory.

• Yuvraj Singh?s breathtaking innings

Finally, we can see the old Yuvraj Singh striking the ball as cleanly as he ever did. It was as if he was set from the pavilion because he didn?t look scratchy at all. He came out all guns blazing, taking Tymal Mills and the party to the cleaners. He smashed 3 sixes and 7 fours in his 62 from just 27 balls. One could get a glimpse of the 2007 Yuvraj Singh who smashed Broad for six sixes in an over in this innings. Yuvraj propelled SRH above 200 which turned out to be a winning total in the end.

• Ben Cutting running Kedar Jadhav out

This was the turning point of the match. Kedar Jadhav was going strong and was batting on 30 from just 15 balls when he tried to play a scoop shot off a length ball from Moises Henriques and just managed to get the ball till fine leg where Ben Cutting was present. Jadhav rushed back for the second run but was denied, courtesy a bullet throw from Cutting which uprooted the leg stump and Jadhav was found short of his crease. RCB kept losing wickets after that and ended up 25 runs short in the end.

• Were KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers missed?

RCB surely missed these three players in their batting lineup today. Chasing a big total, Virat Kohli would have been the pillar around the innings would have been built and De Villiers with his range would have smashed the ball all around the park RCB could have ended up on the winning side today. Rahul has been in top form and would have given them a good start, a platform on which others could build on. Hopefully they recover quickly from their injuries for the sake of the Bangalore team.