Twitter Reactions: AB de Villiers and precise death bowling help RCB pip KXIP by 17 runs

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have registered a hat-trick of victories and have gained the momentum suddenly now. They defended 202 runs at the Chinnaswamy stadium and this time, their death bowling was at its best. Umesh Yadav, who had almost conceded 26 runs in the final over against CSK, bowled superbly in the 18th and 20th overs as they pipped the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by 17 runs.

Chasing 203 runs to win, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul got the visitors to a brilliant start. In no time, they crossed the 50-run mark and one felt that the lacklustre RCB bowling was at it again. However, Umesh Yadav struck first blood by removing the dangerous Gayle. Mayank Agarwal started well and slammed 35 runs before getting out to Marcus Stoinis. Soon KL Rahul was dismissed by Moeen Ali and RCB were in the game.

Nicholas Pooran though had other ideas. He came out and started smashing the spinners Moeen and Washington Sundar out of the park. Kohli brought back his pacers in time and Pooran lost all the touch soon. It became very tough for him and David Miller to hit boundaries in the last four overs. At one stage, they needed 47 off 24 deliveries and the equation reduced to 27 off 6 when Pooran got out.

They couldn’t get there eventually and ended up at 185 runs for the loss of seven wickets after 20 overs. RCB have finally climbed up from the last position and will hope to do the unthinkable now.

ABD special at the Chinnaswamy

Earlier, RCB lost their skipper Virat Kohli very early in the innings. But Parthiv Patel continued playing those sort cameos to propel the team’s score to 70 in the powerplay overs. He got out after scoring 43 runs off just 24 deliveries and what followed was proper headless cricket. Akshdeep Nath and Moeen Ali threw their wickets away and RCB had botched a great start.

AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis had to rebuild then during which the run-rate came down significantly. Both of them got their eyes in and then set themselves for a fantastic finish. De Villiers started to open up his arms in the 15th over. He targetted the weak link in Ankit Rajpoot and from thereon, the run-fest began for RCB. The South African also played a single-handed shot which went out of the ground.

The carnage had just started and Stoinis joined in the last couple of overs as the ball travelled a long way during this period. RCB added a massive 48 runs in the last two overs as they crossed the 200-run mark out of nowhere to post 202 runs for the loss of four wickets after 20 overs. Eventually, it was enough for them thanks to RCB’s brilliant death bowling on the day as they climbed to the seventh position in the points table.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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