2 months ago
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Jacob Duffy’s fantastic amusement successful the IPL 2026 opener greatly softened the stroke dealt by the lack of pb Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood.
The New Zealand pacer made a memorable IPL debut, honing successful connected abbreviated of magnitude to necktie up the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters astatine the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium successful Bengaluru connected Saturday. Duffy provided the cleanable template connected however to operate, a ready-made model that SRH failed to replicate.
Also Read: IPL 2026 RCB vs SRH highlights
The gangly speedster from Lumsden spoke astir learning to ace the transportation puzzle from elder pro Hazlewood. “I americium conscionable keeping the large fellow’s (Hazlewood’s) spot warm. I wanted to vessel the hard lengths. We talked astir lengths, what works here, and built connected what Hazlewood did,” Duffy said to the big broadcaster aft RCB cruised to a six-wicket victory.
Duffy’s exploits were followed by explosive knocks from Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and Rajat Patidar successful the RCB chase.
Skipper Patidar was each praise for Kohli and Padikkal. “Padikkal was assertive from shot one. I truly enjoyed his batting,” Patidar said.
Even astatine 37, Kohli is astatine his peak, Patidar explained. “I consciousness similar Virat is astatine his peak. He is my idol. He has that aforesaid energy, eagerness to perform, to predominate the game. I americium learning a batch of things by watching him successful the nets,” Patidar said.
SRH caput manager Daniel Vettori stated that his bowlers conscionable could not execute connected the night.
“We learned a batch from however RCB bowled — what was effectual and what was not. We evidently discussed it, but we weren’t capable to instrumentality that. We missed our lengths excessively much. Duffy successful peculiar showed the magnitude to vessel connected that surface,” Vettori said.
