AB De Villiers unbeaten 90 off just 39 balls signaled his return to form against Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Saturday. Coming into bat in a precarious situation with RCB reeling at 29/2 De Villers struck a boundary to get off the mark. But from thereon it was no looking back for the Proteas batsman as he went to hit 10 fours and five sixes. Prior to this knock, De Villiers had only one fifty in IPL’s season 11. However, against DD he reminded one and all of the age-old saying that form is temporary but class is permanent. Skipper Virat Kohli heaped lavish praise on his teammate and went on to deem him as the best player in the world.
“The guy (AB) in our team gives us plenty of reasons to smile. We understand situations, understand each other’s games well. He started off in a great way, my job then became to stick it out, string in a 65-70 run partnership. And then the opposition know they have to protect the game, rather than going for a win,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
“It was a pity I couldn’t stay till the end, but Corey and Mandy did really well to support him. They kept taking singles with positive intent and that is great to see. But AB just keeps taking the game away and that’s why there’s no doubt why he’s the best player in the world,” he added.
The mutual respect between Kohli and De Villiers is well known. Recently, Kohli had revealed that watching ABD bat had helped him to succeed during the South African series.
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