During the 28th match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Sharjah, veteran RCB batsman AB de Villiers smashed his 36th IPL half-century to help his team to reach the total of 194/2 in 20 overs.
Coming in to bat at No. 4 in the 13th over, De Villiers was looking to up the ante from the word go whilst playing at a stadium like Sharjah. De Villiers, who had registered a couple of single-digit scores before this match, smashed KKR bowlers to each and every part of the ground to find form after a brief slump.
It was only on the third delivery that he faced that De Villiers scored a boundary and made his intentions pretty clear of going berserk. He launched an all-out attack at 20-year old Kamlesh Nagarkoti to spoil his bowling figures by hitting two sixes and a four in his last over.
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Kolkata’s bowling spearheads Pat Cummins, the most expensive player of the IPL 2020 auction, was treated similarly as de Villiers hit the Australian player for two sixes and a four in the 17th over.
In the next over being bowled by KKR all-rounder Andre Russell, AB de Villiers continued to increase the impetus with a four and a six. With RCB captain Virat Kohli (33*) failing to hit a boundary until the penultimate over, de Villiers’ innings was the need of the hour for his team.
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Having scored 73* (33) with the help of five fours and six sixes, de Villiers played a major role RCB to amass as many as 83 runs in the last five overs and a 100-run partnership for the second wicket alongside Kohli.
Here is the video of the knock:
Twitter reactions on AB de Villiers’ flamboyant knock:
Drop everything else you’ll are doing guys, switch on your TV sets, @ABdeVilliers17 is in the mood!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 12, 2020
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
Imagine watching AB de Villiers batting to the background audio of Tony Greig's commentary. #IPL2020
— Sreshth Shah (@sreshthx) October 12, 2020
AB de Villiers has a bad habit of ruining perfectly decent figures #KKRvRCB #IPL2020
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) October 12, 2020
But let's put this innings in perspective: Kohli managed only one edged four from his 28 balls, AB hit 5 fours and 6 sixes from his 33 #RCBvsKKR
— Sambit Bal (@sambitbal) October 12, 2020
ABsolutely Devilliers.🔥🔥 #RCBvsKKR
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) October 12, 2020
Enjoying the @ABdeVilliers17 show at #Sharjah 💥 Still reckon @imVkohli needs to open the batting & ABD bats 3… simply both world class players face more balls 🤸🏽🕺💥 #nobrainer @ipl
— Danny Morrison (@SteelyDan66) October 12, 2020
He is in different leauge AB Devilier @ABdeVilliers17 .. #legend @RCBTweets vs @KKRiders @IPL
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) October 12, 2020
In 33 balls, 6 sixes and 5 fours! Only #ABDevilliers can do this. #RCBVsKKR #KKRvsRCB #IPL2020
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) October 12, 2020
