IPL 8: AB de Villiers magical 59-ball 133* sets up big win for RCB over MI

On Sunday, however, the big Jamaican —with nothing more than a towel to cover his enormous torso — sat at the edge of his seat and peering over the pavilion balcony. And he wasn’t budging an inch. Nor were the 33,000-odd, who had turned up at the Wankhede Stadium for the Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers match, or the millions watching it around the world. For AB de Villiers was holding court.

That is till Gayle jumped up and tried coaxing the ball to come to him, after de Villiers had smashed it in his direction. Maybe the Mumbai bowlers were hoping it would reach him too. And never come back out again. For, they simply had had enough of the South African. Not for the first time, a bowling attack had been brought down to its knees by AB. And while Gayle himself might be a nightmarish prospect with bat in hand, there is no batsman who can render them as helpless or hapless like AB can.

It was the fourth six of his knock. It took him to 115. He would eventually hit three more fours to take his boundary count to 19 and remain unbeaten on a 59-ball 133. And like with every AB super-knock, he had made batting look ridiculously nonchalant, despite playing some of the most ingenious strokes you will ever see. Like a sweep shot to the deep mid-wicket fence off Lasith Malinga, the man with the most-feared yorker in the world. Or two back-to-back sixes of Jasprit Bumrah while being literally horizontal to the floor-the second bringing up his ton.

It’s probably high time AB’s knocks start getting a PG rating. Maybe a disclaimer akin to the ones they show during WWE shows-“Don’t try this at home, school or playground”. That is if there is anyone brave enough to even attempt it.

And when he wasn’t going down on his knees, AB was making room, slicing bouncers over the keeper, pushing back in his crease and pumping length deliveries over the covers, and decking full-tosses into the higher tiers of the Wankhede Stadium. He then even showed off his sashaying skills, by moving his left-foot back in line after leaving it astray, and forcing Malinga to bowl a wide. In the midst of all that, he also played the most awe-inspiring yet technically-sound cover-drive you would see off Harbhajan Singh.

At the other end, Royal Challengers’ captain Virat Kohli was just enjoying the best seat in the house. Later he would speak about taking his memories of AB’s knock and their partnership — unbeaten 215, the highest for any wicket in the IPL — to his grave. He wasn’t the only one.

The best seat

It could easily have gone wrong for Kohli though. When just off his sixth delivery, he jumped out of his crease and swung across the line to a length delivery from Mitchell McClenaghan-only for Harbhajan to grass a straightforward opportunity at slip. Kohli was on 6. Gayle had incidentally been dropped off the previous delivery while attempting a pull-shot, with skipper Rohit Sharma letting slip a high-ball that spent close to what seemed like half-a-minute in the air. McClenaghan had just been denied two wickets in two balls. Mumbai had let slip a grand opportunity to reduce RCB to 13/2. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, so good was AB’s knock. But Kohli made the most of his reprieve, finishing with 82, a knock where he showed off his own batting repertoire-both orthodox and otherwise-even if they were mightily overshadowed by AB. Gayle’s drop, however, didn’t prove too costly as Lendl Simmons taught his team how to catch with yet another diving effort.

Trini posse

Simmons also showed Mumbai how best to chase down a target of 236, by sticking around in the middle and putting away every bad delivery that came his way. He, in fact, remained unbeaten on 68. Till the time he and fellow Trinidadian Kieron Pollard were at the crease, the hosts were in the hunt. Especially, with Pollard deciding to try his best and hit a ball over the Wankhede stadium roof. He eventually fell to a 24-ball 49, caught off a leading edge while trying to smash Sreenath Aravind over the mid-wicket fence. With that ended MI’s hopes.

Powered by a swashbuckling 133 off just 59 balls by AB de Villiers and a classy 82 from skipper Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers Bangalore trounced Mumbai Indians by 39 runs in an IPL cricket match on Sunday.

South Africa’s de Villiers, who came in at the fall of opener Chris Gayle’s wicket, simply tore apart the MI bowling as he hammered four sixes and 19 fours on a superb batting track at the Wankhede Stadium as RCB rattled up 235 for 1.

As it happened

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