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Jacob Duffy Player of the Match: Apart from the excellent half-century innings of Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, fast bowler Jacob Duffy played an important role in RCB's victory. This was Duffy's first IPL match and he won the Player of the Match award by bowling brilliantly in the first match itself. Jacob Duffy took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs.
Jacob Duffy became the player of the match.
New Delhi. Royal Challengers Bangalore have started the 19th season of IPL from where they left off in IPL 2025. Yes, the defending champions RCB team made a winning start to the tournament by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6 wickets in the first match of IPL 2026. Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal played an important role in giving this victory to RCB, who played half-centuries of 69 runs and 61 runs respectively. However, neither of these two was chosen player of the match. Actually, this award was given to Jacob Duffy, who bowled brilliantly for RCB in the first innings.
Apart from the excellent half-century innings of Virat and Devdutt, fast bowler Jacob Duffy played an important role in RCB's victory. This was Duffy's first IPL match and he won the Player of the Match award by bowling brilliantly in the first match itself. Jacob Duffy took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs. Duffy shook the top order of SRH's batting by taking important wickets of Head, Abhishek and Nitish Reddy.
Jacob Duffy became the player of the match.
What did Duffy say after the match?
After the match, Duffy said, 'Feels great. I have heard very good things about Bangalore and RCB. This is a great way to start a campaign. I am just saving the place of that big player (Hazelwood). We have recognized that the new ball shows some effect in Bangalore. We talk a lot about the conditions here and what works here. This wicket is a little different. In the last few months, I have not seen any wicket with such bounce here. As long as the ball is new and hard here, this is the best time to bowl.
What happened in the match?
Talking about the match, SRH, after losing the toss and batting first, scored 201 runs for 9 wickets with the help of Ishan Kishan's 80 runs and Aniket Verma's 43 runs. Thanks to Virat Kohli's unbeaten 69 and Devdutt Padikal's innings of 61 runs, RCB won the match by 6 wickets by scoring 203 runs for 4 wickets in 15.4 overs. SRH captain Ishan Kishan and RCB captain Rajat Patidar praised Virat Kohli's unbeaten inning of 69 runs in 38 balls while chasing the target.
About the Author
Working as Sub Editor in Network 18 Group since November 2025. 3 years experience in journalism. Debuted in sports journalism with Zee News. Interested in writing about cricket as well as hockey and badminton. mother…read more
