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Yuzvendra Chahal showed why he is one of the key players in the Royal Challengers Bangalore team along with Captain Virat Kohli and batting mainstay A B de Villiers.
The absence of top quality spinners in the RCB squad means that the onus is on Chahal to deliver the goods -- a role he played to perfection in his side's opening IPL game against the SunRisers Hyderabad.
Chasing 164 for victory, SunRisers looked on course with 43 needed from 5 overs for victory and a well-set Jonny Bairstow taking the game away from RCB with some sensible batting.
It was at this juncture that Kohli brought on Chahal in the 16th over, and the leggie did his job to perfection.
First, he dismissed Bairstow with a flighted delivery which turned sharply and beat the England right-hander all ends up as he went for a big hit.
He then accounted for Vijay Shankar with the next delivery, bowling him through the gate with a googly, to turn the match decisively in RCB's favour.
Chahal was rightly named man of the match as he finished with 3/18 in his four overs, which was instrumental in triggering the SunRisers batting collapse.
Sunrisers lost 8 wickets for 32 runs and were bowled out for 153 to lose the match by 10 runs.