AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell made a merry of the MA Chidambaram Stadium wicket as Royal Challengers Bangalore mounted 204 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders in match 10 of IPL 2021. Reeling at 9 for two, De Villiers chipped in with an unbeaten knock of 76 for 34 deliveries while Maxwell contributed with 78 runs as Bangalore accumulated 70 runs in the last five overs.
Opting to bat first, Royal Challengers Bangalore were in a spot of bother at nine for two with Varun Chakravarthy removing Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar cheaply. But Eoin Morgan strangely took spinners out of their attack and let the batters off the hook. Glenn Maxwell and Devdutt Padikkal stitched a useful partnership with the latter playing second fiddle to Maxwell and revived the innings for RCB. The men in purple lost the plot completely.
AB de Villiers powers RCB to 204
They managed to halt the run-flow to an extent after Padikkal’s dismissal, but Maxwell and AB de Villiers went bonkers at the death. It looked like Maxwell all the way but de Villiers stole the thunder in the last five overs. KKR leaked 70 runs and 50 of those came from AB de Villiers’ willow.
The former South African batsman came at a time when 200 looked like a far-fetched dream for Royal Challengers Bangalore. But AB de Villiers came all guns blazing at the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers taking them for cleaners. The star batsman launched a carnage against Andre Russell taking 38 runs from his two overs.
Meanwhile, Twitter was bowled over by AB de Villiers blistering knock at the Chepauk. The cricketing fraternity name Jason Holder, Harsha Bhogle, Liam Livingstone showered praise on the veteran batter following another masterclass. Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blakes also bowed down to de Villiers following his masterclass.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
Surely South Africa, you have to find a way to play @ABdeVilliers17 in the #T20WorldCup. Surely.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 18, 2021
Wow de Villiers is on a different level. South Africa 🇿🇦 come on you need this man. @ABdeVilliers17 @OfficialCSA
— Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake) April 18, 2021
ABD😍😍😍😍😍
— Jason Holder (@Jaseholder98) April 18, 2021
Maxwell and AB in full flow 🤤🤤🤤 unbelievable!
— Liam Livingstone (@liaml4893) April 18, 2021
Thank you @Gmaxi_32 & @ABdeVilliers17 for entertaining us 👏🏽👏🏽 #firstclass
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) April 18, 2021
I might say this a few times.#AB #RCBvKKR #differentclass https://t.co/Mq26s3Di59
— Mpumelelo Mbangwa (@mmbangwa) April 18, 2021
Other teams- 150-160 is a winning score in Chennai. #ABD & #Maxwell challenge accepted! #topclass batsmanship on display 👏🏼👏🏼#RCBvKKR #VIVOIPL
— Pragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) April 18, 2021
A B de Villiers really is incomparably amazing with his strokeplay😱😱😱😱.
— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) April 18, 2021
That Superman with another marvelous innings. @ABdeVilliers17 .
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) April 18, 2021
Can we find more words to praise @ABdeVilliers17 ? #legend
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 18, 2021
