Quantcast

Super AB leads RCB to comfortable win

De Villiers blasts record knock as the Mumbai Indians fall further out of IPL finals contention

AB de Villiers’ mind-boggling batting buried Mumbai Indians under a pile of runs at Wankhede to help Bangalore register their sixth win of IPL 2015.

The South African batsman shrugged off a slow start to hammer a 59-ball 133 and guide Bangalore to their second successive score of more than 220 from 20 overs. Despite a fighting reply from the Mumbai batsmen, the home side fell 39 runs short of their target.

While Bangalore went into the game with the same XI that defeated Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai made two changes to their side. Jasprit Bumrah came in for Vinay Kumar while Lasith Malinga replaced Marchant de Lange.

De Villiers had scored just one fifty in the competition before this innings, but had been threatening to explode all season; last time RCB came up against Mumbai it took AB 10 balls to reach 41 before he was out off the 11th.Image Id: ~/media/C50E85AE8FD94A9597B44526F1FFC5CC

AB was in ominous touch from his first ball // BCCI

The superstar batsman seemed to be carrying on from where he left off that night, providing statisticians an afternoon they would treasure forever given all the records that were broken by the de Villiers bat.

When Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli were dropped off successive balls in Mitchell McClenaghan’s second over, it seemed like Mumbai would end up paying dearly . As it turned out, Gayle’s stay extended only a couple of deliveries longer, falling to Lasith Malinga.

The relief at Gayle’s departure was to turn into worry and worry to grief in the ensuing overs as de Villiers savaged a directionless Mumbai attack with some incredible batting all around the wicket.

It wasn’t that de Villiers was particularly expansive from the very start - when Harbhajan Singh came on to bowl the eighth over of the Bangalore innings, their score was 1-46.Image Id: ~/media/33B0BA89C817438D8FA513A1C2DA0104

De Villiers notched his first 50 off 29 balls // BCCI

Four balls into that first over, Harbhajan looked to be getting into his groove, having given away just five from it.

And then de Villiers unleashed. A four and a six off the last two balls of that over signalled his intentions and from then on, all but one over cost Mumbai 11 or more.

In recent games, Mumbai have often kept themselves in games thanks to their spinners - Jagadeesha Suchith and Harbhajan - during he middle overs. But De Villiers’ calculated assault on the pair left Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma scratching his head and as it turned out, without too many options to turn to.

Suchith went for 35 from his three overs, Harbhajan conceded 30 in two and the brazen attack meant they had to be removed from the attack soon after.

Needing to cover those three overs from somewhere else, it was Hardik Pandya who was assigned the responsibility. Not that it made too much of a difference, as de Villiers, along with Kohli, took him for 51 from his three overs.Image Id: ~/media/000930D2BE144FBAA35F8E0DEF92417C

Virat Kohli provided able support throughout // BCCI

The rest of the attack wasn’t spared either mind you. McClenaghan’s comeback over, the 12th of the innings got de Villiers a couple of boundaries, including one that saw him to his 29-ball half-century.

Once Malinga’s third over was out of the way, Pandya was spanked for three fours in a row, while McClenaghan conceded two boundaries in the 16th to end with figures of 0-40 from four.

More carnage followed when Bumrah was smashed for a pair of sixes – de Villiers bringing up his century just 18 balls after passing 50. A whopping 75 runs were scored from the last five overs of the Bangalore innings, 52 of which came off de Villiers' bat.

It’s worth comparing this de Villiers knock with what Gayle has frequently produced with during his time in theIPL.

If Gayle is all about brute force, de Villiers pierced gaps with precision.

If Gayle prefers standing still at the crease, de Villiers loves moving around it.

And while Gayle’s target areas are usually over the ropes in front of the wicket, de Villiers played plenty of strokes along the ground – as his 19 fours indicate.

As if to put the South African’s knock in perspective; Kohli scored an unbeaten 82 from just 50 balls and he was a forgotten man in their partnership, a stand that yielded an unbeaten 215 runs. It was the highest ever for any wicket in the history of Twenty20 cricket, thanks to the third-highest individual score in the history of IPL and 10th in Twenty20 cricket.

What was strange to see was that other than Malinga, there weren’t too many changes of pace attempted by the Mumbai bowlers and any variation of length or line was easily tackled by de Villiers’ movement at the crease.

Despite Parthiv Patel’s early run-out, Mumbai kept in touch with Bangalore’s total before falling behind in the final leg of their chase.

After 14 overs, Bangalore had been 1-132 while Mumbai were only three behind that score for the loss of an extra wicket, thanks to Kieron Pollard’s 24-ball 49.

Even after 16, that gap had risen to just nine runs. But by then the Mumbai Indians were four down and their momentum had clearly stalled.

Simmons batted through the innings, remaining unbeaten on 68, but it wasn’t the most fluent of knocks.

He looked to bash the ball instead of relying on his expert timing and the pressure of the required-rate appeared too much for the West Indian.

Rohit struggled for his 15, and while Pollard did keep Mumbai in the hunt with his sparkling knock, he didn’t last long enough to test the Bangalore bowling. In an attempt to carve over extra-cover he sliced a Sreenath Aravind delivery to the fielder in the deep.Image Id: ~/media/325EECAD83B5461A9CA7D18950E2DE12

RCB sealed the win despite a below-average night from spearhead Mitchell Starc // BCCI

Mitchell Starc, who had had an excellent IPL since joining the side late, ended up conceding 41 runs from his four overs before picking up the late wicket of Harbhajan Singh.

It was the beginning of the end for Mumbai in the game, which meant they are now left with no option but to win both their remaining two games to qualify for the playoffs. Bangalore need another victory to all-but seal their passage.