AB de Villiers was the wreck-in-chief for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowlers were caught off guard with his onslaught and ended up conceding 83 runs in the last five overs. And then, once 194 runs were on the board, the bowlers did a phenomenal job as the spinners Sundar and Chahal were stand out restricting the top KKR batsmen and winning the game by 82 runs.
Earlier, De Villiers came out all guns blazing as RCB skipper, Virat Kohli decided to bat first aiming to post a big total on the board. ABD took on the KKR bowling attack in the last five overs to leave the opposition stunned and he also outscored during the unbeaten 100-run partnership. After getting his eyes in, De Villiers literally smacked almost every bowler who bowled at him.
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There was no respite even for the likes of Pat Cummins and Andre Russell as he ABD smashed five fours and six huge maximums. Kohli played an unbeaten on 33 off 28 balls as RCB finished on 194 runs for the loss of two wickets in 20 overs. Apart from Varun Chakravarthy (0/25) none of the KKR bowlers could keep a lid on the run-scoring.
Chasing 194 on a pitch expected to get slower was a daunting task for KKR and they needed their openers, Tom Banton and Shubman Gill to fire, the RCb bowling attack never put their foot away from the gas. Navdeep Saini castled the former in the fourth over and since then, there was no momentum to the innings at all.
All the batsmen just came and went even as RCB’s versatile bowling attack barred them from getting back into the game. If the pacers were brilliant, RCB’s spin duo of Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal were beyond exceptional bowling to some of the explosive KKR batsmen. They conceded only 32 runs in their 8 overs together and dismantled the middle-order of the opposition sending back Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, and Dinesh Karthik.
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In the middle over, KKR went down from being 51/1 to 64/5 in 3.1 overs. Andre Russell was the last hope even as the required run-rate went beyond 14 as Isuru Udana dismissed him in the 14th over to end the contest right there. KKR could eventually reach only 112 runs after playing 20 overs as RCB registered a huge win by 82 runs to improve their net run-rate.
Match Summary:
Royal Challengers Bangalore – 194/2 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers: 73*, V Kohli: 33*; P Krishna: 1/42) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders – 112/9 in 20 overs by (S Gill: 34; C Morris: 2/17, W Sundar; 2/20) 82 runs
Here is how Twitterati reacted to RCB’s win:
And mr 360 !!!lights up the Sharjah stadium ! On his day it’s a different ball game ! Amazing to watch @ABdeVilliers17 . If @imVkohli starts going we can see 190 200 on board ! Game on !!! #RCBvKKR #IPL2020
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) October 12, 2020
AB-solute CARNAGE! 💥 ☄️ #PlayBold #IPL2020 #WeAreChallengers #Dream11IPL #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/1RIwTaLOqC
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) October 12, 2020
Only De Villiers can make Kohli look like the 2nd best in a partnership. #RCBvKKR
— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) October 12, 2020
Many ppl wouldn’t have agreed with me when I said this is t typical #Sharjah pitch in the mid show but #kkr will agree with me…
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) October 12, 2020
The moment @ABdeVilliers17 was good to keep wickets, the team's balance was transformed. That is the biggest factor in this turnaround. #RCB
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 12, 2020
This is a massive win for #PlayBold Improves their NRR. 5 wins at halfway stage. Three more will see them through…and with this team, they should manage more than just three out of 7. #IPL2020 #RCBvKKR
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 12, 2020
Lowest individual innings in the match by #RCB was Padikkal- 32 runs
Best innings by #KKR was Gill-34 runs!
The 82 runs defeat for KKR is easy to understand.
Chahal-Sundar excellent in spin department. Things are finally falling in place for RCB. #RCBvsKKR #KKRvsRCB #IPL2020— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) October 12, 2020
Good performance by @RCBTweets in all three departments!@KKRiders… E na cholbe re! #RCBvKKR
— Vinod Kambli (@vinodkambli349) October 12, 2020