Bangalore: At this moment, nothing seems to go against Royal Challengers Bangalore. If it’s not Virat Kohli, they have their saviour in AB de Villiers. When it looked that Gujarat Lions had pulled off the match against Royal Challengers, AB (79 off 47 balls) found able partners down the order in Stuart Binny and later Iqbal Abdullah and steered RCB to the IPL final, as the hosts beat Suresh Raina-led team by four wickets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, on Tuesday.
RCB sipper Virat Kohli said he didn't believe that he was standing here as the winning captain. “That ends the debate who is the best. I bow down to the big man (AB). Come the big game, AB stands up. One of the best knocks under pressure. I am really happy for him. We have played good cricket coming into the playoffs. Today, the top order did not do well. I could see the opposition was worried about AB. Credit to Abdulla as well. The young guy showed terrific composure.”
“The ball stopped early but eased in the second innings. It couldn't be a better scripted story for us: playoffs in Bangalore and final in Bangalore. This one is for the people of Bangalore,” he added.
AB de Villiers, who was Man-of-the-Match, said, “I was very, very nervous to be honest. I know if I was at the end, we would be close. The one boundary just cleared the fielder and I saw the ball well from then. I attacked Dwayne Smith. This crowd is the loudest I have heard in my life. We went down in the first half of the tournament, but we have turned it around.”
Meanwhile, Suresh Raina said, “AB batted really well. We bowled well upfront. We bowled well in the middle. It is a small ground and we did not get wickets in the in between overs. Smith and Dwivedi batted well. 160 was defendable.”
