In Pics: AB de Villiers Smashes 79 Off 47 as RCB Enter IPL9 Final

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Gujarat Lions by four wickets on Tuesday.

AB de Villiers played a spectacular innings of 79* off 47 balls against Gujarat Lions in the first qualifier of the IPL on Tuesday as Royal Challengers Bangalore booked a place in the final after a four-wicket victory.

While chasing Gujarat’s decent total of 158, RCB were tottering at 29/5 at one point. But then, De Villiers took centre stage and with the help of Stuart Binny and Iqbal Abdulla got RCB over the line.

Earlier, Gujarat Lions kept losing wickets at regular intervals after being put into bat. Dwayne Smith was the only batsman who played a responsible innings. His 41-ball 73 helped Gujarat score a modest total.

Here’s a look at the match through pictures.

Iqbal Abdulla got the Royal Challengers Bangalore off to a fantastic start. The spinner removed both the Gujarat Openers, Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum with just six runs on the board.

Shane Watson made matters worse for Gujarat after he got Raina out for one run. Gujarat were reduced to 9/3.

Then, Dwayne Smith (73) and Dinesh Karthik (26) got the situation under control with a 85-run partnership.

But once Karthik was dismissed by Chris Jordan, the Gujarat batsmen kept getting out at regular intervals.
Eklavya Dwivedi and DJ Bravo strung a decent partnership of 30 runs towards the end but after Dwivedi fell to Watson, Gujarat’s batting order collapsed and were all out for 158.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Reply

Dhawal Kulkarni got Gujarat off to a dream start. The fast bowler got rid of Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul in 3.3 overs. RCB were reduced to 25/3.

Ravindra Jadeja kept the momentum in Gujarat’s favour by picking up Shane Watson’s wicket. Then, Kulkarni almost finished the match for Bangalore after sending Sachin Baby back to the pavilion. Bangalore were tottering at 29/5 after 5.3 overs.

De Villiers began playing a responsible innings and started stringing a threatening partnership with Stuart Binny (21). But, Jadeja kept Gujarat in the game with Binny’s wicket.

Then De Villiers put together a huge partnership of 91 runs with Iqbal Abdulla (33) to wrap up the match.
The South African, who scored 79 runs off 47 balls, smashed five fours and five sixes during the course of his innings.