It was Virat Kohli the other night against Chennai Super Kings in Dubai and on Monday, it was AB de Villiers single-handedly knocking the wind out of Kolkata Knight Riders as Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched their 2nd win as three days as their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 campaign is picking pace at the right time.
With 5 wins from 7 matches, Royal Challengers Bangalore are tied on points with table-toppers Mumbai Indians. Virat Kohli’s men are at the 2nd spot on IPL 2020 points table due to the former’s superior Net Run Rate.
AB de Villiers’s genius gave Royal Challengers Bangalore 194 in 20 overs and the cushion to attack without minding the size of the boundaries. RCB did not put a foot wrong on Monday as their fast bowlers struck early, their spinners came up with a bowling display that is worthy of being a blueprint for how to bowl in Sharjah against some of the cleanest hitters of the ball.
They took their catches alright and were electric on the field, imbibing their captain’s energy as RCB clinched an 82-run win. KKR were restricted to 112 for 9 — their lowest total against RCB in the history of IPL.
Sundar and Chahal: 8 overs, 32 runs and 3 wickets
Pacer Navdeep Saini gave the early breakthrough by removing young England batsman Tom Banton who was a little tentative on his IPL debut as early as the 4th over. Then came Washington Sundar who joled Kolkata Knight Riders with two big wickets, removing their enforcers in Nitish Rana (9) and Eoin Morgan (1).
Yuzvendra Chahal got the big wicket of in-form Dinesh Karthik for 1. Virat Kohli was brilliant with his captaincy as he brought both the spinners in tandem, challenging the KKR batsmen to go after them. Sundar and Chahal did not give anything away as they conceded just 32 runs in 8 overs and picked up 3 crucial wickets between them.
Even for Andre Russell, the asking rate was too steep but the big-hitter, who had recovered from an injury scare, threatened to come up with another of those single-handed miracles but Isuru Udana, who gave away 14 runs in 3 balls, got the big wicket, ending Russell’s stay for just 16. Udana was brilliant on the field as well as he ran out Shubman Gill for 34 just when the youngster was looking to go big.
Sluggish pitch, no problem: AB de Villiers puts on a show in Sharjah
Earlier in the day, AB de Villiers came up with a masterclass of big-hitting on a sluggish wicket where even Virat Kohli struggled to get boundaries frequently. In fact, the RCB skipper managed his first boundary only in the 25th ball he faced but de Villiers finished his stunning knock with 6 sixes and 5 boundaries.
It was Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal who gave RCB a strong start with some fine power-hitting in the powerplay. However, once the ball got a bit older, the two batsmen slowed down and lost their wickets. There was a period of 4 overs after Padikkal’s exit when RCB did not manage a single boundary.
However, after de Villiers walked in, it was just one-way traffic. The legendary batsman proved yet another time why he is one of the most, if not the most dangerous strikers of the ball.