Twitter Reactions: RCB's AB de Villiers puts on a special show in Sharjah to blow KKR away

AB de Villiers! He was the man who stood up for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with the bat and smacked 73* off just 33 balls. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were caught off guard with the onslaught and ended up conceding 83 runs in the last five overs. And then, once 194 runs were on the board, the bowlers did their job perfectly even as the spinners Sundar and Chahal were stand out restricting the top KKR batsmen and winning the game by 82 runs.

Earlier, it was all AB de Villiers show after RCB opted to bat first aiming to post a big total on the board. And their number four batsman didn’t disappoint them. He took on the KKR bowling attack in the last five overs to leave them stunned. Even Virat Kohli was outscored during the unbeaten 100-run partnership. De Villiers came out to bat in the 13th over with only 94 runs on the board.

And after getting his eyes in, he literally smacked almost every bowler who bowled at him. It all started with two huge sixes off Kamlesh Nagarkoti in the 16th over, one of which ended up hitting a moving vehicle on the roads of Sharjah outside the stadium. There was no respite even for the likes of Pat Cummins and Andre Russell on the day as the former South Africa cricketer raced to 73 off just 33 balls with five fours and six huge maximums.

Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 33 off 28 balls with only a single four as RCB finished on 194 runs for the loss of two wickets in 20 overs. They would’ve also thanked their openers Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal for providing a good platform adding 67 runs in 7.4 overs for the first wicket. Apart from Varun Chakravarthy (0/25) none of the KKR bowlers could keep a lid on the run-scoring.

KKR’s shambolic effort in the chase

Chasing 194 on a pitch expected to get slower was not going to be easy by any means for the KKR. They needed their new opening pair Tom Banton and Shubman Gill to make use of the new ball. But RCB bowlers were exceptional upfront and didn’t let them open their arms. Navdeep Saini castled the former in the fourth over and since then, there was no momentum to the innings at all.

All the batsmen just came and went even as RCB’s versatile bowling attack never let KKR come back into the game. They had included Mohammed Siraj in the XI at the expense of Gurkeerat Singh Mann to strengthen the bowling attack and it proved crucial for them. If the pacers were brilliant, RCB’s spin duo of Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal were beyond exceptional bowling to some of the explosive KKR batsmen.

They conceded only 32 runs in their 8 overs together and dismantled the middle-order of the opposition sending back Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik. It was the period when KKR collapsed from being 51/1 to 64/5 in 3.1 overs. Andre Russell was the last hope even as the required run-rate went beyond 14. Even he couldn’t do much as Isuru Udana dismissed him in the 14th over to end the contest right there.

KKR could eventually reach only 112 runs after playing 20 overs as RCB registered a huge win by 82 runs to improve their net run-rate and also climb to the third position in the points table.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: