Yuzvendra Chahal interviews AB de Villiers after his scintillating performance against KKR

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsman AB de Villiers, who batted extremely well last evening against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), has revealed his mantra behind successful batting despite being out of international cricket for a couple of years now. In a video that was uploaded on the official Twitter handle of IPL, de Villiers spoke to his teammate Yuzvendra Chahal after the match, he said he has worked really hard on his batting in the last few months as he doesn't play a lot of cricket these days. de Villiers further added that he always gives his best shot while playing for the Bangalore franchise. 

"I have worked really hard in the last few months. I did not expect to be playing really good cricket at the moment but I am very happy, I always give my best shot when I play for RCB. It was a very hard day today, I sort of got worried about the conditions after losing two wickets, but I am very happy that we came through and played well," de Villiers told Chahal after the match. 

AB de Villiers, who won the man of the match award, hit his 39th half-century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while playing against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) yesterday. The explosive batsman reached his half-century in style by hitting the legendary Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh for a six-over deep cover. AB de Villiers, who came to bat in the 12th over, finished the first inning for RCB with 76 runs not-out under his kitty. The South African batsman helped his team cross the 200-run mark at Chepauk Stadium, first for any side at Chepauk in IPL 2021.

RCB vs KKR

After Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first, RCB lost two quick wickets in the second over, including its skipper. Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell forged an important partnership of 86 runs before the former was sent back to the pavilion by KKR pacer Prasidh Krishna for 25 runs. Meanwhile, Maxwell scored his second fifty of the season as he hit 78 off 49 balls before Pat Cummins sent the all-rounder back to the dug-out. But AB de Villiers had already joined the party by then and scored quick runs with a strike rate of 223.53 to finish at 76 not-out off 34 balls. de Villiers smashed the last ball for a boundary to take RCB to 204/4 in 20 overs. 

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opening pair Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill were looking good until the duo was dismissed for 18 and 21 runs respectively. Gill was striking the ball well and was looking dangerous before Jamieson dismissed the batsman for 21 off 9 balls. The 21-year-old was hitting the ball with a strike rate of 233.33. Rahul Tripathi scored 25 off 20 balls, while skipper Eoin Morgan hit 23-ball 29 runs before being dismissed by Harshal Patel. Shakib Al Hasan and Andre Russell forged an important partnership but that failed to last long as the West Indies all-rounder departed for 31 off 20 balls after being bowled out by Harshal Patel. No other KKR batsman could make a mark as they lost the match by a whopping 38 runs. 

(Image Credit: PTI)