AB de Villiers is a modern-day batting great. The South African not only possesses all the shots in the book but also manufactures shots to hit the ball to any part of the ground. He's Mr 360 degree, in the truest sense.
On Wednesday, de Villiers showed his vintage class to help Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by 17 runs in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
During his 44-ball knock, de Villiers hit three fours and seven sixes, including an unbelievable maximum resulting from an evasive action but the ball still landing on the rooftop. That shot proved the 360-degree-ness of de Villiers.
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Mohammed Shami, having hit for back-to-back sixes off the third and fourth deliveries over the same corridor, over wide long off, tried a beamer. But to his and everyone's surprise, an evasive de Villiers still managed to land the ball on the rooftop, over fine leg.
Watch it here:
That happened off the fifth ball of the penultimate over.
The 35-year-old remained unbeaten on 82 as RCB set a stiff target of 203. He got ample support from Marcus Stoinis, who also remained unbeaten on 46 off 34 balls. The duo produced a match-high stand of 121 runs with 64 of those coming from the last three overs.
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In the ten matches he has played so far, de Villiers has hit five fifties.
