De Villiers eases RCB to victory
BANGALORE: AB de Villiers hit the top gear, obliging the crowd that kept chanting his name, to hit a 24-ball half-century and negate whatever gains Delhi Daredevils had made in the middle part of the match in IPL at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Daredevils got to 174/5 and then plucked two early wickets, which included Quinton de Kock, before Virat Kohli’s side fought back.
RCB eased 176/4 in 18 overs to register their second victory of the season. Daredevils saw the game slip away due to De Villiers’ free scoring. The South African batsman was unbeaten on 90 (39 balls, 10x4, 5x6).
He overshadowed Rishabh Pant’s 48-ball 85 that saw Daredevils get to a challenging total, starting slowly before stepping on the gas in the last five overs.
But for a sensational catch on the boundary by Trent Boult to get rid of Virat Kohli, it looked like the two colossal figures of international cricket would carry RCB home.
Kohli and AB de Villiers put on 63 runs off 39 deliveries, with the South African going for monstrous hits and Kohli complementing him with quick running between the wickets and wellplaced boundaries.
Yuzvendra Chahal scalped Jason Roy and Glenn Maxwell.
Roy was beaten thrice by sharp leg-spinners before being bowled off a flipper early on. Maxwell was expected to build on the 75-run partnership between Pant (48 b, 6x4, 7x6) and
Shreyas Iyer (52 – 31b, 4x4, 3x6), but holed out to third man.
The responsibility then came on Pant who produced some improvised strokes over the boundary. However, they proved too little. “Hopefully, we can turn it around when we get back home,” said DD skipper Gautam Gambhir.