Kohli and de Villiers squash Pune

The result: Royal Challengers Bangalore 3-185 beat Rising Pune Supergiants 8-172 by 13 runs

The match in a tweet:  A tornado in the form of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers sweeps through Pune as Supergiants have no answer for Bangalore

The heroes:  Is there a better sight in world cricket right now than watching AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli bat together? The pair of them put on a batting exhibition with a dazzling partnership of 155 from 95, hitting a combination of 13 fours and six maximums. Coming together in fourth over, the pair belted the Pune bowlers to all sections of the ground with textbook and innovative strokes.  The genius of the two was summed up by the fact that out of 163 runs scored between them (de Villiers 83 and Kohli 80) they scored an almost equal amount of runs in four different sections of the ground. Add to that they batted out only 22 dot balls, it meant Bangalore was able to amass a score of 185.

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The contest: The 16th over of the Bangalore innings was a battle of cat and mouse between Kohli against Ashwin. First ball Kohli ran at Ashwin, only to see the cunning off-spinner fire one past his legs but Dhoni missed the stumping chance. Then Ashwin slipped in the carom ball, Kohli picked it early and brought out the reverse-sweep. Next it was the quicker off-spinner that nearly trapped Kohli leg before wicket.  Finally, Ashwin flight one, Kohli attempted a slog but only managed to sky it straight up in the air, unfortunately for Ashwin the catch was dropped and Kohli marched on.  

The support cast: In a game dominated by batsmen, South Australian bowler Kane Richardson's figures of 3-13 in three overs were simply outstanding. With the Pune top order looking to go after him, Richardson dismissed Faf du Plessis early and would only concede six runs from his first two overs.  Given the responsibility for the final over and with Pune needing 21 runs, Richardson held his nerve to pick up a wicket and give away only seven runs in a classy performance.

The consolation effort:  Ajinkya Rahane's stellar innings of 60 from 46 ensured Pune at least put up a brave fight. Having lost Pietersen to injury (see below) plus the wickets of Steve Smith and Faf du Plessis early, Rahane resurrected the innings with risk-free cricket. Along with eight boundaries, Rahane converted ones into twos at will and utilised the sweep shot to great effect.

The big over: As Pune situation got desperate, with 50 runs needed 18 balls, Harshal Patel was taken to the cleaners. Rajat Bhatia and Thisara Perera belted him for 25 runs. The pattern for the over would read 6 1  4 4 4 6. But it proved to be too little too late for Pune.

The injury:  Kevin Pietersen played his first ball into the off-side and took off for a single, but suddenly turned and hobbled back into his crease. Some treatment on the field and a very dejected looking Pietersen had to be carried from the ground in obvious discomfit. It was later revealed to be a calf injury with Pietersen taking to social media to express his feelings.

The stat: With this victory, the Royal Challengers have become the only team this edition of the IPL to win a match batting first.

The next stop: The Royal Challengers will now travel to Rajkot to take on the Gujarat Lions while the Pune will play host to the table-topping Kolkata Knight Riders.