AB de Villiers heaps praise on skipper Virat Kohli

Although AB de Villiers was a massive part of the Royal Challengers’ win over the Kings XI Punjab, the Proteas batsman heaped praise on his skipper Virat Kohli. The latter smashed his second century in T20 cricket and remained unbeaten in the chase against the Rising Pune Supergiants. RCB is currently placed 7th in the points table and needs to win 5 out of their remaining 6 games to make it to the playoffs.

Kohli is also the best chaser in the world with his averaged clocking almost 44.85 while chasing totals. Talking to Caravan Magazine about Virat Kohli, de Villiers noted that the 27-year old is someone who times his innings to perfection.

“I have watched him closely during the past few weeks, often from the non-striker’s end, and I have marvelled at his confidence, his special ability to hit the ball into gaps in the field and his talent for pacing an innings to perfection.”

“In the early stages, he was not afraid to play defensively against any good ball and he was not flustered as the required run-rate started to rise because he knew that, when it mattered, he would hit the boundaries and the sixes that would take us to our target of 192 in 20 overs.”

“With him and K. Rahul opening our innings, we scored only 10 runs from the first three overs but there was no panic. In the fourth over, after Rahul had scored a six from the second ball, Virat faced the fourth ball, stepped away to leg and simply lifted the ball over the boundary at extra cover.

The 33-year old South African ODI skipper also added that Kohli is a confident player and is impossible to stop at the peak of his operating powers.

“It was an exquisite stroke, performed by a player full of confidence and operating at the peak of his powers.”

“He took two boundaries in the ninth over, one driven through cover and one whipped to midwicket, and two more from Bhatia in the 11th, another driven past cover and another flicked into the leg-side.

“He was content to take singles and twos while Shane Watson was thriving, but Virat’s cultured assault resumed when he hit two 6s and a boundary in the 18th over.After two more sixes in the 19th, he hit the winning boundary off the third ball of the last over, finishing unbeaten on 108 from 58 balls.”

“Virat Kohli is pure class, world class.”