IPL 2017: AB De Villiers’ Sensational Knock Not Enough To Deny Kings XI Punjab
April 11, 2017
AB de Villiers, one of the two most-awaited Royal Challengers Bangalore players finally took the ground on Monday and got down to business like only he can. Sadly for him, the rest of the batsmen did not put up even a semblance of fight against Kings XI Punjab as the latter walked away with a pretty easy win. Chasing RCB’s 148/4 off 20 overs, KXIP cantered to 150/2 off just 14.3 overs to claim their second victory of IPL 10 while RCB suffered their second loss.
In that total of 148, De Villiers’ contribution was an incredible 89 off just 46 balls with 9 sixes! It was hitting like only he can execute. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Only Mandeep Singh (28) added anything to the kitty.
De Villiers played like only he can – all around the park. It was hard to believe that he has been out of action for a while. His technique and ability to improvise were simply astonishing.
For KXIP, Varun Aaron joined the party with 2/21.
In reply, Hashim Amla (58*) and Manan Vohra (34) got about the business of cutting down the mediocre RCB total in right earnest.
Skipper Glenn Maxwell then got into action and clattered a quickfire 43 not out off 22 balls to finish the match off way before the scheduled time.
While Amla was his usual calm self, holding up one end, Vohra and then Maxwell kept attacking the bowling to ensure that KXIP’s run-rate never diminished and their net run-rate also did not suffer.
After Amla and Vohra added 62 runs, Axar Patel went relatively cheaply. However, there were no alarms as Amla and Maxwell put together 72 runs to settle the issue.
