AB de Villiers is a livewire in whichever team he plays for. He is a super athletic and always up to something. No challenge is too big for him. His outstanding ability to change things singlehandedly was at display against the Rajasthan Royals at the MCA stadium in Pune.
While playing the eliminator game for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, de Villiers showed highest order of batsmanship to take the match away from the Royals.
With the help of 38 deliveries, de Villiers made an incredible 66 to take RCB’ score to 180. In reply, the Royals folded up for 109 in the 19th over. Eventually, RCB won the match by 71 runs. They will play the Chennai Super Kings in the second qualifier in Ranchi on Friday.
But their Wednesday’s win wouldn’t have been possible without a 113-run stand between de Villiers and Mandeep Singh for the third wicket. They took 67 balls to build the match-winning stand.
This was the crucial juncture of RCB’s innings after they lost explosive Chris Gayle and captain Virat Kohli within eighth over. Royals’ Dhawal Kulkarni took those two wickets to put pressure on RCB. But thereafter, the AB show began.
Later on, the Royals needed a good start to their innings to chase down a challenging total. But the moment, they lost their last match centurion Shane Watson early, they lost the initial momentum.
At the top of the order, opener Ajinkya Rahane did try to repair Royals’ innings but there wasn’t anyone to support his cause.
As far as the RCB bowlers are concerned, all of the, got wickets and kept bowling the right line and length to create that uncertainty in the minds of the opponent. In the end, it was match, which completely belonged to RCB.
