The tenth season of the Indian Premier League got off to a glitzy start as the legends of Indian cricket: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag were honoured before the action got underway.

On the field, the Sunrisers set the tone and set a huge target of 207 for the Royals to chase at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

But, the visitors fell well short and the defending champions sealed a comfortable 35-run victory.

The hosts, however, didn’t get off to the best of starts with the bat.

Skipper David Warner was dismissed by RCB debutante Aniket Choudhary in the bowler’s very first over but Shikhar Dhawan (40 – 5×4) and Moises Henriques (52 – 3×4, 2×6) helped SRH gain control.

Indian star Dhawan welcomed RCB captain Shane Watson back into the attack by smashing two boundaries off the Australian as last year’s winners struck 17 runs in the last over of the batting powerplay.

After Stuart Binny got rid of Dhawan, fans’ favourite Yuvraj Singh (62 – 7×4, 3×6) joined Henriques in the middle and the duo added 58 runs before Yuzvendra Chahal saw off Henriques.

Yuvraj, who was dropped by Sreenath Aravind at deep mid-wicket off Aniket Choudhary when he was on 26, reached his half-century in 23 balls – the fastest anyone has ever got to that landmark in IPL history.

Pace ace Tymal Mills clean bowled Yuvraj in the 19th over but the 35-year-old had already caused plenty of damage.

In reply, Mandeep Singh and Chris Gayle got off RCB to a flier – scoring 54 runs in 5.4 overs.

But, the Sunrisers managed to stem the flow of runs as newcomer Rashid Khan (2-36) dismantled Mandeep’s stumps and Deepak Hooda then ended dangerman Gayle’s stay at the crease.

Kedhar Jadhav (31 – 4×4, 1×6) and Travis Head kept RCB’s hopes high as they added 50 runs together in no time and reached 98-2 at the halfway stage, requiring 110 more for victory.

Watson tried to up the rate late on but RCB were all out for 172 inside 20 overs.