Bengaluru, Apr 24 (UNI) Astonishing batting by AB de Villiers who struck 82 off 44 balls hitting three fours and seven sixes and a methodical assault by Aussie all rounder Marcus Stoinis who struck unbeaten 46 helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru set a challenging 203 for win against Kinigs XI Punjab in the IPL tie played at M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Wednesday.
Put into bat RCB made a brilliant start helped by belligerent Parthiv Patel who struck 43 off 24 balls hitting seven fours and two sixes RCB raced to 35 for 1 before losing the all important vicket of Virat Kokhli who was dismissed by Mohammed Shami for a tame 13 but then AB de Villiers, even after RCB lost its all-rounder Moeen Ali (04) and Akashdeep Nath (03) set a methodical run pile up as AB de Villiers and Marcus Stonius added 121 in the last 11 overs to catapult the home side, which has been languishing on the bottom of the table to a possible winning total.
Kohli left to offering a tame catch to Punjab skipper Ravichandran Ashwin in the fourth over and later the home innings was taken on fast forward mode by Parthiv Patel who struck seven fours and two sixes and RCB looked to be in command before Patel departed at RCB score at 71 in the seventh over. Two more wickets of Moeen Ali in the eighth over when R Ashwin introduced himself and Aakashdeep left in the ninth over at 81 for 4 did not leave indomitable AB de Villiers with any distress.