AB de Villiers produced a masterclass with the bat and Navdeep Saini’s brilliant penultimate over kept Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) afloat as they beat Kings XI Punjab by 17 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
De Villiers’ unbeaten 82 off 44 balls took RCB to a mammoth 202/4 but things could have gone awry with KXIP wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran (46 off 28 balls) hitting five sixes at the rear. It was then when Saini sealed the deal for the hosts in the 19th over where he conceded three runs and took two wickets.
KXIP finished at 185/7 in their 2💝0 overs and RCB are now on eight points with three games leftꦦ — moving away from the bottom of the table.
With four wins in the last five games🦩, the Royal Challengers will hope to win the remaining three and e💜xpect a few favourable results to make it to the play-offs as rank outsiders.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
Scoreline does not reflect h🤡ow close this match acutally was. Punjab’s sparkling bid to chase down 202 fizzled out only in the last over. RCB reap reward of spectacular batting by ABD, but bowling and fielding could be better
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah)
AB De Villiers…. now you sir, are a JOKE! 😳😳👏🏼👏🏼
— Ben Duckett (@BenDuckett1)
A B Delivers. Once again.
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash)
Mr. 360 sending the ball on the rooftop!! Punjab could not finish i꧟t off well at all, Parthiv at the top 𓄧looking really impressive.
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh)
Why did AB have to retire from Internatꩵional cricket?!! We all would of loved to have seen him in the WC next month.
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93)
THIS is my team!! This is 𒐪the the fans love. Win or lose, THIS is 𒁃our team!
— Nikhil Chinapa (@nikhilchinapa)
Lovꦛe reaction catching Great entertainment and !! 👏🏻 Mother 🐷cricket always gets you!!
— Paul Collingwood (@Colly622)
Stop the press. are no longer last in the p🀅oints table!
— Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42)
Punjab choked. Should have won this one but the last 3 overs of their 👍batting, just like their bowling was KXIP’s nemesis
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73)
The tortoise is on the move …
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru)
🌳So Umesh Yadav redeeming himself toni༒ght but must say Navdeep Saini was superb. And what fielding from him. How can he not play the World Cup! 3 for on the trot.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar)
AB ꦏde Villiers (265.4) has gone past Andre Russell (255.8) in terms of the highest batting strike-rate during the death this sea♌son.
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak)
Most Man of the Match awards for RCB in IPL:
18 AB de Villiers
17 Chris Gayle
12 Virat KohliOverall in IPL:
21 Gayle
20 ABD
16 Pathan, Rohit, Dhoni, Warner— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath)
wow, more tไhan a month into the tournament and RCB are finally off the bottom!
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75)
AB de Villiers' last five balls for RCB:
Six
Six
Six – out of the stadium
1lb
SixMasterclass.
— bet365 (@bet365)
Last five overs today:
RCB : 80 runs (RR : 16.00)
AB de Villiers : 4ꦫ6 runs off 15 balls (SR : 306.67)— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman)
. tre🔯ated us to his range of 360 degree shots in a knock of 82* (44) to walk 𝄹away with the Man of the Match award👏
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL)
"I'm like a 'ComeBack Kid' – you can't keep me down for long!" Beat @lionsdenkxip by 17 Runs 🔥👑
— RCB Bold Brigade (@BoldBrigade)
