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 2ꦆ0♔ overs and RCB are now on eight points with three games left — moving away from the bottom of the table.
With four ꦑwins in the last five games, the Royal Challengers will hope to win the remaining three and expect a few favourable results to make it to the play-offs as rank outsiders.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
Scoreline does not reflect how close this match acutally was. Punjab’s sparkling bid to chase down 202 fizzled out only in the last oℱver. 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!! Punja✃b could not finis♚h it off well at all, Parthiv at the top looking really impressive.
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh)
Why did AB have to retire fr𝓡om International cricket?!! We all would of loved to have seen him in the WC next month.
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93)
THIS is my team!! This is the the fans love. Win or lose, ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚTHIS is our team!
— Nikhil Chinapa (@nikhilchinapa)
L🌼ove reaction catching Great entertainment and !! 👏🏻 Mother crick𝓀et always gets you!!
— Paul Collingwood (@Colly622)
Stop the press. are no longer 𝓡last in the points tab🉐le!
— Saurabh Somani (@saurabh_42)
Punjab choked. Should ha🧜ve won this one but the last 3 overs of their batting, just like theꦇir bowling was KXIP’s nemesis
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73)
The tortoise is on the move …
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru)
So Umesh Yadav redeeming himself tonight 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 de Vil𒅌liers (265.4) has gone past Andre Russell (255.8) in terms of the highest batting strike-rate during the death this season.
— 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 than a month into the tournament and 🔥RCB are finally off th꧑e 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 d🌳e Villiers : 46 runs off 15 balls ✤(SR : 306.67)— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman)
. treated us to his range o♔f 360 de🍰gree 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)
