Bengaluru: One of the best batsmen in the world, AB de Villiers has played in very few finals of a tournament and he feels ‘honoured and privileged’ to be featuring in the Indian Premier League (IPL) summit clash after he guided Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a four-wicket win over Gujarat Lions on Tuesday.
De Villiers played a match-winning knock of an unbeaten 79 against the Lions in the semi-finals to power the Royal Challengers into Sunday’s final.
“To be in IPL final means much to me and I have not played in a lot of finals throughout my career. Having played for RCB for six years have not seen playing in finals. It is a great honour and privilege to be in the finals with this great franchise, which has looked after me and the team over the years,” De Villiers said at the post-match press conference.
“Lot of people were saying we were underperforming but moments like these make things worthwhile. We had a great team spirit for some years now, and have played some good cricket. But never got to really enjoy the finals and, hopefully, we will win it but we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he added.
Chasing 159 for a win, Bangalore looked down and out at 29 for five wickets with Dhawal Kulkarni grabbing four of them, before De Villiers smashed 79 not out off 47 balls to script a sensational comeback and take the team home in 18.2 overs.
Asked about the semi-final victory, De Villiers said, “Kulkarni bowled a fantastic spell and lots of credit is going to go to him. He basically had the game in their [Lions’] pockets.
“But like Zaheer Khan [his former RCB teammate] always tells me it is a funny little game and you are never out of it. So, we always had a belief in the back of our minds. They almost won the game in powerplay and we just kept fighting, kept fighting,” he said.
Asked if would rate his 79 not out as one of the best innings of his IPL career, De Villiers said he gives a damn about statistics, but only concerned about helping the team to race past the winning post.
“I always said it. I honestly don’t give a damn about any statistics. I don’t think anything about my hundreds or fifties. It was special for me to cross the line for the team and win a game. That is why I play this game,” he said.
De Villiers said the Chinnaswamy wicket played funny and anything about 160 runs to chase would have spelt trouble for his team. “Yes, it was funny kind of a wicket. While we were bowling, I thought anything above 160 we will be in trouble.
“The wicket didn’t seem like a wicket we can go and score out there,” he said.
On playing a risky shot as reverse sweep in a crunch situation, De Villiers said he plays the shot according to his instincts based on the long years of cricket experience he has. He also said he had discussed about it with captain Virat Kohli before going into bat and told the skipper he would go about it with his natural instincts.
“It is a funny thing. Virat and I actually spoke about it before our batting innings. He was full of energy, giving full of information and I told him Virat, I will just go naturally about it. I don’t think too much and, he is a thinker. I am not a big thinker. I will try and assess what is going on and don’t think about it too much and I am never 100 per cent sure. It is very easy to say but also have got out playing the shot before,” he said.
