BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Monday heaped rich praise on young RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal, who made a sensational IPL debut against SRH after he walked in to open with Aaron Finch.
The class and calmness Padikkal (56 off 42, 8 fours) showed in his first high-profile game was remarkable and earned him plaudits from fans and experts all around the world. In the process, the young batsman also made a distinction as he had previously scored half-centuries in his first-class, List A and T20 debut.
Ganguly who was an attacking left-handed opener in his playing days, tweeted, “Enjoyed watching devdutt padikal @RCBTweets ..left-handers grace so delightful.”
Padikkal got going with three boundaries in an over off left-arm pacer T Natarajan. The left-handed opener brought up his half-century with a slog sweep over the fielder at deep square leg.
Devdutt Padikkal who plays for Karnataka in domestic cricket was the highest run-scorer in 2019/20 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He accumulated 609 runs at an average of 67.66 in the former while finished with 580 runs (12 innings) in the latter. Padikkal made his first-class debut in 2018 and List A debut in the following year.
AB de Villiers kept scoring from the other end and just when the SRH seemed to control the scoring rate, he upped the ante and slammed two consecutive sixes in the 19th over to take the RCB past the 150-run mark. de Villiers scored 51 off just 30 balls before he was run out in the final over as the RCB finished off at 163/4 in their allotted 20 overs.
