AB de Villiers is the life and soul of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s party. It took just one particularly devastating innings from Mr 360 to breathe life into their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 campaign.
Till ABD took the Delhi Daredevils bowling attack by the scruff of the neck on Saturday, his team was floundering at the penultimate spot in the table. By the time he had finished with the visitors’ bowlers, he had not only helped RCB hammer out an impressive win, but had also enabled them to zoom up to fifth in the league standings.
To say that ABD pulverised the Delhi attack would be an understatement. He demolished them. The gigantic sixes off Harshal Patel, Chris Morris and Rahul Tewatia ruined more than just bowling figures. It left them defeated and drained.
The tall, pacy South African Morris was smashed high and mightily into the terrace stands while leg spinner Tewatia was brutally slog swept onto the stadium roof. Other massive sixes were deposited into the upper tiers as De Villiers went on a rampage during his unbeaten innings of 90 (39 balls).
During the post-match presentation, De Villiers stated it was one of those days he saw the ball out of his hand perfectly, as opposed to the previous games. Therefore, he looked to cash in with the opportunity to get some runs under the belt.
“The last two innings I wasn’t hitting it too well, but today I felt it coming off the middle, watched it nice and early, bought myself that extra split second and that’s when I need to cash in,” AB de Villiers commented after receiving his memento.
TV commntator Harsha Bhogle asked ABD what goes through his mind when the crowd chants ‘ABD! ABD!’. The South African replied by saying Bengaluru crowd is the best in the world.
“When you do get on top of the bowler, you have to take him down. This is the best crowd in the world; I just love playing here,” continued ABD.
“But I must say, whenever you get into that zone that crowd is only a buzz. And today was a buzz. [On the ‘genius’ in his bat] I didn’t give myself that name, MRF did it (smiles),” concluded the ‘Man of the match’ AB de Villiers.
