AB de Villiers singlehandedly lifted Royal Challengers Bangalore from the bottom of the table with a ruthless unbeaten 90 off just 30 balls to beat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in Bangalore on Saturday.
Relieved after Royal Challengers Bangalore brought their IPL campaign back on track, skipper Virat Kohli, who scored 30 runs from 26 balls, credited AB de Villiers for the turnaround saying the South African always give the team plenty of reasons to smile.
These 30 runs are bigger than the 90 odd in the last game. We won. We still have a few areas to correct, but when you have the brilliant AB in the team, he always makes you smile.Virat Kohli
"We understand our games very well and then he starts going off. And we know if we can get a 60-70 run partnership, we could win the game. Pity I couldn't stay till the end but Corey (Anderson) and Mandeep Singh did well."
De Villiers' explosive half-century featured 10 fours and five huge sixes as Bangalore cruised to 176-4 in 18 overs to get a perfect tune up for their next three matches at home. They were chasing Delhi's 174-5, which featured Rishabh Pant (85) and Shreyas Iyer (52).
Pant hit seven sixes and six fours as Delhi enjoyed a fruitful last five overs by plundering 71 runs. But De Villiers overshadowed Pant's knock with his delightful sweeps, drives and pull shots.
(With inputs from PTI and AP)
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