Royal Challengers Bangalore were almost out for the count chasing 156 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday. But AB de Villiers stood up and struck a whirlwind 89 not out to turn the match on its head and continue Bangalore’s dominance at home.

De Villiers smashed eight sixes and six fours during his 41-ball innings as Bangalore overcame a batting failure and superb bowling spells from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-16) and Karn Sharma (3-17) to register a six-wicket win.

Despite de Villiers’ charge, Bangalore still needed 28 runs from the final 12 balls. And with Dale Steyn, who had conceded just 16 runs from his three overs bowling the penultimate over, the task appeared monumental. 

But de Villiers sealed the issue with a sensational batting display striking three sixes and one four to collect 23 runs from the Steyn over. It was just that he hit the winning runs, a boundary off Irfan Pathan, to the delight of the Bangalore fans.

Bangalore were in a tight spot when de Villiers walked to the crease with the team 38-3 and top scorer Chris Gayle (27 off 20 balls) back in the hut.

Kumar had set the tone by dismissing opener Parthiv Patel (3) and captain Virat Kohli (0) in his first over and there was further trouble for the home side as debutant Rilee Rossouw (14) and Yuvraj Singh (14) did not last long.

When Yuvraj was dismissed in the 15th over, Bangalore still needed 60 from 5.3 overs with five wickets in hands.

Thankfully for the hosts, de Villiers had already got into the groove and was threatening to break loose.

He first targeted Darren Sammy, carting the West Indies all-rounder for two sixes and a four to collect 19 runs in the 16th over.

Steyn, however, had de Villiers in a bind conceding just three in the next over, but the 30-year-old South African batting star made amends when his compatriot quick returned for his final over.

Interestingly, de Villiers’ best partnership was with No7 Mitchell Starc – 57 runs in 4.4 overs – the Australian’s contribution being just five runs.

De Villiers, who had scored just 73 runs from four games before yesterday’s onslaught, felt everything in place against Hyderabad.

He said: “It is one of those nights where things go your way. I had a Skype session with my mom and dad today, and my dad said, the others are lucky. 

“Guess I had my luck today. He (Steyn) won the first set and I won the second. I would have loved to have a third set against him. In those kinds of situations it is the small things that matter the most. 

“It is team spirit, such things that matter in the end. Yuvraj (Singh) kept boosting me up tonight, got to give credit to him,” he added.

A delighted Kohli termed it as the best Twenty20 innings he had ever seen.

“He (AB) is the best player in the world by far,” said the RCB skipper.

“He has shown it every now and then, and he showed it again today why he is rated the No1 in the world in any format. 

“Today was one of the days when we needed someone to win the game from that tough situation. It is one of the best innings in T20 I have seen, the way he was striking the ball under pressure.”

This was Bangalore’s eighth win out of nine matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the franchise now sit fourth in the IPL7 standings with six points from six matches. 

Earlier, David Warner’s fighting knock of 61 off 49 balls helped Hyderabad post a challenging 155 for six after being put into bat.

Warner hit four boundaries and three sixes as he steadied the Hyderabad innings, along with captain Shikhar Dhawan (37 off 36 balls) by raising 62 runs for the third wicket.

Dhawan admitted there was little he could do to counter de Villiers, saying: “You cannot help it when someone produces a great knock. We started off well as a bowling unit but AB played amazingly.”