IPL 2020: Devdutt Padikkal surpasses Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer in a special record

Devdutt Padikkal went past Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer in an Indian Premier League (IPL) record during the IPL 2020 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) on Monday.

RCB opener Padikkal, who is playing his debut IPL season, scored his fifth half-century of the ongoing IPL 2020 – the most by an uncapped Indian player in a debut IPL season. He went past the joint record of Dhawan (2008) and Iyer (2015), who were tied at four fifties in their respective debut campaigns.

Padikkal, who scored a 41-ball 50 against DC on Monday, also became the highest uncapped Indian run-scorer in a debut season with 472 runs so far. The 20-year-old, who kickstarted his IPL career with a fifty, has been one of the most consistent performers for RCB in the ongoing season in the UAE. To be able to make his presence felt in a team that includes the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Aaron Finch speaks volumes of the youngster's character and talent.

As of now, RCB and DC have 14 points each, but Kohli's side are placed second in the table because of a better net run-rate. The winner of the ongoing fixture between the two sides in Abu Dhabi will reach the play-offs at the second position on the points table. It will not be all over the loser, provided the margin of defeat is not massive.

Padikka top-scored for RCB, while de Villiers scored a quick-fire 35 in the middle and Kohli scored 24-ball 29 as RCB managed to post only 152 for 7 in 20 overs. DC pacer Nortje was the stand out performer for them in the first innings as he picked three wickets, while the other scalps were shared between Kagiso Rabada and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Speaking at the toss, RCB skipper Kohli said," It is simple you try and win every game of cricket you play. The conversation never changes and you don't take any game lightly. But this being a crunch game not a bad thing to be batting first and putting runs on the board, we would have liked to bowl as well. Pressure in big games can be a funny thing. Whatever total you get the other team has to chase it. We have to play good cricket, consistently we have done well, we have had a few bad games which is acceptable and in a tournament like this it is competitive, but we still have good spirits as a side and looking forward to this encounter today.

We have been in this situation before, the three finals we played before we probably had to go through like this in all those editions. The mindset was simple win the game, move ahead and you don't think of other possibilities. It is basically how you play on the day, the result pans out in a certain manner, and if you have not played well then you don't deserve to be in a situation where you expect other teams to do something else. It is all up to the two teams today and how they executed their plans."