Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

Devdutt Padikkal scored a perfect 50 in his IPL debut match between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Dubai. The left-hander has a good record in domestic cricket and his rich form garnered alot of applause in last night’s match too.

Picked by RCB for just Rs 20 lakh in the last year’s auction, the opening batsman looks promising in 20-over format too. Previously, he had scored 580 runs in 12 games for Karnataka at an average of 64.44 including one century and five half centuries in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

While RCB has an impression of scording great numbers in the Powerplay, Padikkal’s record of hitting sixes can come as for a great help. The 19-year-old is known for playing the big shots and has a strike rate of 175.75 in T20 cricket. He has a record of 33 sixes in 12 T20 games.

By the time Vijay Shankar dismissed him in the 10th over, he had scored a scintillating 56 of 42 balls at a strike rate of 133.33 including four boundaries.

“Devdutt [Padikkal] was really good on debut, Finchy as well. But when you lose two in two, you have to consolidate. If not for two in two, you were looking at maybe 10-20 runs more. In the past if we had 43 off 5, you’d see the shoulders dropping but the guys kept believing, kept attacking. Someone like Washy not bowling enough and a part-timer doing it are good signs” said team captain Virat Kohli in post match presentation.

RCB will be playing their next match with Kings XI Punjab on 24th September in Dubai.

Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.