During the eighth match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab at Bengaluru, AB de Villiers’ put on display responsible innings, an innings which aided Royal Challengers to win the match by 4 wickets.

Virat Kohli, captain of Royal Challengers, had won the toss and chose to field. Batting first, Kings XI Punjab scored 155-10 in 19.2 overs. Royal Challengers Bangalore were cruising past in the chase before Ravichandran Ashwin bowled a double-wicket over.

de Villiers came in to bat in the fifth over when Virat Kohli was dismissed by Mujeeb Ur Rahman on 21. The legendary batsman waited for a couple of overs before hitting his first boundary against Mohit Sharma. de Villiers welcomed Sharma into the attack by hitting a six off him on the first delivery.

He followed a steady approach after this. Ashwin’s over left de Villiers with a lot of onus on him. It was at this point in time that both de Villiers and Mandeep Singh laid emphasis on churning out singles and doubles. After the second strategic timeout, Royal Challengers Bangalore required 41 runs to win in four overs.

To ease the pressure on him and his team, de Villiers hit a couple of towering sixes against Mujeeb Ur Rahman in this over. With a six off Sharma in the next over, de Villiers completed his 23rd IPL half-century. On the first ball of the penultimate over, Andrew Tye eventually brought an end to de Villiers’ masterclass. He couldn’t win the match for his team but had played an innings which had put Royal Challengers in a safe position. He ended up scoring 57 (40) with the help of two fours and four sixes.

Where there's a will, AB shows 'de' way!
What a wonderful half century 🙌👏
Stand up and appreciate the genius.#PlayBold #RCBvKXIP #RCB pic.twitter.com/ZjX8XPhHMc

— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) April 13, 2018