De Villiers explosion in Sharjah shattered Kolkata’s plans

By K.R. Nayar

 The fate of the match was decided in 46 balls of the Bangalore innings through a 100-runs partnership between Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers

It was nothing but an AB De Villiers explosion at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.  That explosion shattered all plans that Kolkata Knight Riders had for this match. Everything was calm till De Villiers walked into the middle with his team struggling to score runs. He realised that his skipper Virat Kohli was also not able to stroke freely on a wicket which was slow and tough for the batsmen.

Very few may know that there was a reason why De Villiers thrashed the attack. It’s a well-known fact that a hurt or humiliated De Villiers is a dangerous man. Kolkata may not have realised that in Bangalore’s last match against Chennai Super Kings, De Villiers was dismissed for a duck, and he will now want to prove a point.  Unfortunately, the Kolkata bowlers happened to be at the receiving end. The bowlers had no clue on how to control him. Whoever gave De Villiers the nickname Mr 360 degree deserves a pat on his back. De Villiers’ hit the ball to every part of the ground, and outside too. His sixes travelling out of the stadium even disturbed the traffic. 

The fate of the match was decided in 46 balls of the Bangalore innings which produced a 100 runs partnership between De Villiers and Kohli. De Villiers’s 33-ball innings for 73 runs was a superhuman effort that Kolkata could not match even collectively. Kohli and De Villiers are the most demolishing partners of the IPL, and on Monday they celebrated piling up 3000 runs together.

Bangalore's total of 194 for 2 was more than any team could have expected on such a wicket. This made the Bangalore bowling look extremely strong with their spinners freely producing all types of deliveries, something they may have feared to try out in a small target match.

This is a match in which Bangalore, which is strong on paper, showed that they are formidable on the field too. It was also a day in which Kohli got everything right. He not only won the toss but also read the wicket correctly that it would get slower as the match progressed.

For Bangalore, this victory could carry them a long way. Winning five out of seven matches makes them look like they have discovered their combination to lift the cup that has eluded them year after year despite always being the best squad on paper. All that they need is to ensure that there is not many a slip between the cup and the lip.