Ahmedabad: Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli heaped rich praise on his fellow teammate AB de Villiers for his magnificent unbeaten 75-run not-out to help his team post a competitive total against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.
De Villiers has arguably been the most impressive batsman of the Cash-rich League, showcasing his 360-degree hitting ability for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). De
The former South African cricketer had not played competitive cricket in the five months before the IPL, scored an incredible 75 off just 42 balls, including 5 sixes and 3 boundaries. While batting against Delhi Capitals on Tuesday De Villiers also became sixth batsman to score 5000 IPL runs in the history of IPL and the only one at a strike rate of more than 150, hit.
We’re in awe of AB too, Skip! 🤩#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2021 #JustABThings pic.twitter.com/ao6PGDqIgg
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 28, 2021
“AB doesn’t like me saying this, but he hasn’t played competitive cricket for 5 months, but if you look at him bat it doesn’t feel like he doesn’t play international cricket anymore. Hats off to him, keeps doing it again and again for us. Such an asset for us. I’ll say this again (smiles). He hasn’t played for five months, just watch that inning,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Talking about defending the total Kohli thanked that his fast bowlers saying that they kept the team in the game and that they had achieved a par-total at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad.
“For the most part I think we were top in this game with our bowlers. We felt 160-165 was par. It was a bit two-paced. There wasn’t any dew tonight thanks to that little sandstorm in the middle and we ended up bowling with a dry ball. If you look at our bowling line-up, Maxi’s still not bowling, he’s the 7th option. As a captain I can bowl guys at different stages, take the load off one another. And Maxi is yet to bowl. We’ve always had batting but now bowling as well.”
“I choose to be optimistic. You do well pressure as captain, when you do this for a long time you need to manage that. I generally go with the gut feeling of the bowler. A lot of credit goes to this guy behind me (ABD), he hasn’t played competitive cricket in five months but he keeps doing this,” Kohli further added.
