IPL: De Villiers, Virat Kohli star in Challengers win

Brilliant innings' from AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and teenager Sarfaraz Khan set up a 45-run win for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

After the early loss of Chris Gayle for one, De Villiers and Kohli combined for a second-wicket stand of 157 in less than 15 overs, before Sarfaraz's spectacular 35 not out from just 10 balls propelled the Challengers to 227-4 in front of a raucous home crowd.

David Warner's brutal 58 from 25 balls at the top of the order gave Sunrisers hope, but the rest of the top five failed to fire, some late-order hitting eventually seeing the visitors reach 182-6 as the Challengers began their 2016 campaign with a victory.

The Sunrisers' day was made worse by an injury to experienced seam bowler Ashish Nehra, who limped out of the action having bowled one ball of his third over.

Ashish Reddy had the unenviable task of finishing that over, finishing with 0-25 from his 1.5, while Karn Sharma (0-57) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-55) also came in for serious punishment.

Among the chaos, Mustafizur Rahman took 2-26 from his four overs on an impressive IPL debut, but it was De Villiers, Kohli and Sarfaraz who stole the show.

After taking 40 balls to reach his half-century, Kohli fell for 75 from 51 including seven fours and three sixes, before De Villiers departed having made a sublime 82 from 42, with seven boundaries and six maximums.

Shane Watson struck three sixes in his eight-ball 19, before Sarfaraz provided real fireworks with his sensational cameo, including 22 off the last five balls of Kumar's final over.

Although captain Warner struck four fours and five sixes in his assault, he suffered from a lack of support, Reddy's 32 from 18 and Sharma's unbeaten 26 from 17 proving in vain for Sunrisers, who fell well short.