Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli was all praise for AB de Villiers, whose innings of 90 off just 39 balls during a six-wicket win against Delhi Daredevils on Saturday was a clear indication that he has returned to form.
“The guy (AB) in our team gives us plenty of reasons to smile. We understand situations, understand each other’s games well. He started off in a great way, my job then became to stick it out, string in a 65-70 run partnership. And then the opposition know they have to protect the game, rather than going for a win,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
The South African batsman hit 10 fours and five sixes to pulverise the Delhi bowlers, for whom Boult returned figures of 1-33.
Kohli further continued, “It was a pity I couldn’t stay till the end, but Corey and Mandy did really well to support him. They kept taking singles with positive intent and that is great to see. But AB just keeps taking the game away and that’s why there’s no doubt why he’s the best player in the world.”
Earlier, Trent Boult left the cricket world stunned with his fielding brilliance after taking a sensational catch hailed as the “greatest ever” during an Indian Premier League match.
New Zealand’s Boult, playing for Daredevils, leapt airborne on the deep square leg boundary to pouch one-handed a shot by Virat Kohli, skipper of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, that appeared to be heading for six.
The wrong-handed diving effort by the left-arm paceman — completed just millimetres inside the boundary rope — left Kohli in disbelief and sent social media into a frenzy.
“I was stunned when he took it, that’s a brilliant catch. It happens in the IPL especially,” Kohli said after his team went on to win the match on Saturday night.
“Good to see. That’s a catch when you look back, you don’t feel bad about getting out,” Kohli added of his dismissal that came off the bowling of Harshal Patel.
“I think we could quite easily have just seen the Greatest EVER catch,” tweeted the former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Commentator and former England Test batsman David Lloyd termed it a moment of “magic” while England and Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Ben Stokes wrote on Twitter: “Don’t think you can even describe that as a catch ... that’s something different.”
