AB de Villiers winded the clock back at the Indian Premier League 2020, with his superb knock at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday. Playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, ABD smashed unbeaten 73 runs off just 33 balls against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the match no. 28 of the tournament.
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de Villiers who came to bat at no.4 completed his fifty in just 23 balls and smashed 5 fours and 6 sixes during his stay in the middle. He ended the innings with a whopping strike rate of 221.21.
Here’s the highlights of ABD’s innings:
🏏 Come for the class of @ABdeVilliers17.
🚀 Stay to see him hitting it out the ground.
📺 Here are the highlights of his massive innings:#RCBvsKKR | #RCB | #IPL2020
pic.twitter.com/Bz3FYrMLJF— PEAK (@ThePeakSA) October 12, 2020
Also, the South African stitched a 100-run partnership with RCB skipper and the man in form Virat Kohli (33*) for the third wicket. Interestingly, the partnership came in just 7.4 overs at 13.04 runs per over and in the process the duo completed 3,000 runs together in IPL, which is highest by any pair.
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Meanwhile, fans were delighted to see vintage AB de Villiers and they took to Twitter to express their happiness:
Stunning @ABdeVilliers17 😍🔥#rcbvskkr#Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/yXfWHGGeKb
— Bromin Parmar (@bromin_parmar) October 12, 2020
What an inning…! 👏👏👏#mindblowing #Wonderful score by @ABdeVilliers17 #powerfulperformance #amazing #IPL2020 #KKRvsRCB 🏏
— Bhavini (@Bhavini_210) October 12, 2020
ABD ❤️ #ABDevilliers #RCBvsKKR pic.twitter.com/F51zPBqJlZ
— Nuts ( Justice For Sushant ) 🇮🇳 (@kaushals_rule) October 12, 2020
Caution ! Please be carefull while driving around the ground., ABD is batting. Helmets recommended!!!! How on earth can a human being do such things. Absolutely genius @ABdeVilliers17 @IPL @cricbuzz
— Yawar Abass (@YawarAbass7) October 12, 2020
#ABDevilliers Whattta player!!! ❤️🔥. Would love to see him bat in the next T20 world cup.#IPL2020
— Maheswaran (@magcasee) October 12, 2020
Talking about match, RCB, who opted to bat first, rode on Aaron Finch’s 47 and de Villiers’ 73* to post 194/2 in the allotted 20 overs.
Notably, RCB are coming into this game on the back of their 37-run win against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). While skipper Virat Kohli-led from the front with the bat, RCB bowlers did a fine job with the ball to seal their team’s fourth win of the season.
Bangalore, in addition to their win against CSK, have three wins against their name, having beaten Rajasthan Royals (RR), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
On the other hand, Kolkata are targeting a hat-trick of wins, having won against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and CSK in their last two games. The Dinesh Karthik-led unit squeezed out both the wins on the back of their extremely disciplined bowling in the middle overs and at the death. While they did not start off their campaign on a winning note, KKR have since won four games out of five.
