The ROYAL AB de Villiers made ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE FINALIST
The most spectacular batsman in the world A B De Villiers showed his batting prowess in a big match with an unbeaten 79 off just 47 balls with 5 Four’s and the same number of Sixes in the first qualifier of VIVO IPL 2016 against Gujarat Lions on Monday 24th May. This was not the typical Chinnaswamy strip, it was low slow and stopping quite a bit. In a Knock-out encounter against the mighty Gujarat, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and put Raina and Co. to bat first. Gujarat Lions started their inning in a rather unusual fashion having lost their top three batsmen on a score of mere 9. One can imagine the condition of the pitch that after 6 overs (mandatory power play), Gujarat Lions could only manage to get 23 odd runs with the loss of 3 important wickets. 23/3 was the lowest Power play score in IPL Knock-outs history, previous one was Deccan Chargers – 23/2 vs CSK in 2010 season. After the damage being done, Dwayne Smith 73 off 41 balls with 5 Four’s and 6 Sixes and a good contribution by Dinesh Karthik 26 off 30 balls with 2 boundaries helped Gujarat Lions to recover from 23/3 to 158/10 “a respectable total” against one of the best batting line up in VIVO IPL 2016. After Dwane Smith got out ,Australian all rounder and one of the most trusted bowler of Royal Challengers Bangalore Shane Watson got rid of Eklavya Dwivedi and Dwane Bravo and registered his best bowling figure of 4-0-29-4 in IPL.
To defend 158 runs against the most devastating batting line up, Gujarat Lions were needed a spectacular spell from one of their bowlers. Dhawal Kulkarni took the responsibility and deliver a fabulous spell of 4-1-14-4 and took the important wickets of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle,K L Rahul and Sachin Baby. 3 out of 4 wickets of Dhawal Kulkarni were dismissed on zero. Even Virat Kohli who was just 81 runs short for his milestone of 1000 runs in a single IPL edition was dismissed without troubling the scorer, ”A rare failure from Virat”. Last time Virat was dismissed on a duck in T20s was way back in 2014, 9th May 2014 to be precise against the Kings XI Pujab. After the breathtaking spell from Dhawal Kulkarni, Royal Challengers Bangalore were tottering at 29/5 after 5.3 overs, But the only hope for Royal Challengers Bangalore was AB de Villiers who was still there at the crease, fighting a lone battle finally took the responsibility and played some scintillating strokes all around the wicket. Although Binny did try his best to up the ante with his 21 off 15 balls but on the score of 68 he was trapped in front by Ravindra Jadeja. After Stuart Binny got out the new man came in was Iqubal Abdulla.
He had to rotate the strike only and he did so. He rotated the strike and gave AB de Villiers Chance to showcase his full range in a gem packed Chinnaswamy. Iqubal Abdulla also played a handy knock of 33* off 25 balls with 3 Four’s and a maximum. Once the partnership has been built up by these two, and the chances of rain was around the corner, RCB were still some runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis par score then AB de Villiers decided to cut loose and changed his gear to take the pressure off.
Ultimately Royal Challengers Bangalore won the qualifier 1 and became the first finalist of VIVO IPL 2016. AB de Villiers deservedly so was adjudged Man Of The Match for his brilliant 79* off 47 balls.
Match Summary : GL – 158 all-out(20 overs), DR Smith – 73(44 balls), D Karthik – 26(30 balls), S Watson – 4/29, Jordan – 2/26, Abdulla – 2/38
RCB – 159/6(18.2 overs), AB de Villiers – 79*(47 balls), Abdulla – 33*(25 balls), Kulkarni – 4/14, Jadeja – 2/21