Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar heaped rich praise on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsman AB de Villiers for his spectacular innings against Delhi Capitals (DC) in match 22 of IPL 2021.
Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Delhi Capitals by 1 run in a nail-biter to register their fifth win of the IPL 14.
Asked to bat first, RCB had a shaky start to their innings as they lost 3 wickets for 60 runs. Coming to bat at No.5 AB de Villiers took the attack to the DC bowlers to help the Virat Kohli-led side reach a fighting score of 171/5.
The South African great played a sensational knock of unbeaten 75 runs off 42 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes to his name. He hammered Marcus Stoinis for 23 runs in the last over and hoisted his team to a competitive total.
During the course of his innings, the veteran batsman also became the sixth batsman overall and only the second overseas batsman to score 5000 IPL runs.
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Talking to Star Sports, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar while lauding AB de Villiers said that audacious shots are ‘jaw dropping’ and he brings so much joy to the viewers.
“It’s amazing. It’s just magical. You can walk around the earth, just to see this man bat because he brings in so much. He gives you so much joy, he makes your jaw drop with the kind of audacity with which he plays some shots,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.
Gavaskar suggested that the De Villiers should open the innings for the RCB.
“When you see a genius like that, you want to go and just watch him carry on. You want to say to the opposition – ‘Listen, why don’t you send him to open the batting because we can get to see more of him rather than him coming in the 10th or the 11th over.
Let’s see 20 overs of ABD’, that’s what I, as a former batsman, always say when I see AB de Villiers in this kind of form,” he said.
Sunil Gavaskar further lavished praise on ABD's ramp shot that went towards the third man at the last moment
“We talk about the big sixes. There was one shot where he just opened the face of the bat and ramped the ball down to the third man. That was an incredible shot because it was hit literally at the last second when he opened the face of the bat,” he concluded.
With five wins out of their six matches, the Virat Kohli-led side will next face Punjab Kings (PBKS) on 29th April at Ahmedabad.
(Starsports Inputs)
