A stunning AB de Villiers knock wasn’t enough to save Royal Challeners Bangalore from defeat at the hands of Kings XI Punjab on Monday night, last year’s finalists falling way short of expectations at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore.
Chasing 149 for victory, Kings XI barely broke sweat as Hashim Amla (58*) anchored their victory, allowing captain Glenn Maxwell to add the gloss with a brutal unbeaten 43 from 22 balls.
Manan Vohra (34) was also in fine form and even Axar Patel’s brief nine-run cameo came from just six balls and included a six, highlighting Kings XI’s dominance.
That RCB were in the contest at all at the midway stage was solely down to De Villiers.
Returning to the side in the place of fellow foreign super signing Chris Gayle, De Villiers produced the kind of masterclass only a few players are capable of.
While his team-mates struggles against the superb Axar Patel (1-12) and Varun Aaron (2-21), De Villiers first kept calm and then exploded.
The South African plundered 58 runs from the final 18 balls that he faced ending up with 89* from 46 balls compared to the rest of the RCB batsmen that could only manage 59 from 74 balls between them.
De Villiers hit three fours and an incredible nine sixes in his innings in taking his team to 148-4, a total that still looked, and proved to be, light but was way beyond expectation at 68-4 at the start of the 14th over.