IPL 2018: Virat Kohli’s admiration for AB de Villiers

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) managed to thrash the Delhi Daredevils (DD) yesterday at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. Prior to the match, they found themselves in a precarious position having required to turn over the home team and stay in contention for a berth in the top-four. They were clinical in all the departments and comprehensively brushed aside Shreyas Iyer’s men.

RCB needed their big guns to fire and they didn’t let their franchise down. On a beautiful batting wicket, Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. The decision paid dividends as Yuzvendra Chahal nipped out both Prithvi Shaw and Colin Munro and the couple of early wickets pushed the Daredevils on the back foot. However, the skipper and Rishabh Pant took charge and bailed them out.

Another jaw-dropping knock by de Villiers

Pant carried forward his form and tonked the leather with all his might. The wicket-keeper batsman notched yet another half-century, which guided the hosts to a competitive score of 181 in 20 overs. RCB commenced the run-chase in an erratic manner. Moeen Ali and Parthiv Patel perished in quick succession and that put the skids under the visitors in their quest to track down the target.

The onus was on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to shepherd the team home. The duo mustered a stand of 118 runs off 64 balls and helped the franchise clinch the ascendancy from Delhi. Virat was nipped out by Amit Mishra and that would have reignited the home team’s hope of getting a foothold into the match. Nevertheless, de Villiers ensured that he stayed there till the very end and completed the triumph.

Following the victory, Virat was all praises for the South African cricketer and hailed him for another superlative performance. The RCB captain took to Twitter and expressed his delight and appreciations for the middle-order batsman. Here is what he wrote

“Have always loved batting with this guy. Makes things simpler for the person at the other end. Today was yet another special partnership. Glad to finish on a winning note. #DDvRCB #IPL2018 @ABdeVilliers17”

Here is Virat Kohli’s tweet

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