230 runs at an average of 46 scored at a strike rate of 179.68, which is the most among players who have scored more than 200 runs in IPL 2020 – a look at AB de Villiers showcases why he has been an X-factor for Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indian Premier League 2020. Season after season, de Villiers turns up and makes everyone take note of him. That it has continued even after his international retirement speaks volumes about De Villiers’ quality and class as a cricketer.
Stressing on the same point, former Netherlands captain Peter Borren said AB de Villiers is better than Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Babar Azam. Borren termed the chat around the ‘big four’ of world cricket funny and said de Villiers is easily better than all of them. (IPL 2020 Full Coverage)
“The ‘big four’ chat you hear sometimes about Smith, Williamson, Kohli and Babar/Root is funny because Ab de Villiers is better than all of them,” tweeted Borren. De Villiers has scored 8765 runs in 114 Tests at an average of 50.66 and 9577 runs in 228 ODIs at an average of 53.5.
The former South African captain is considered one of the legends of the game. Therefore it was a huge surprise when he was sent to bat at No.6 behind Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube in RCB’s match against KXIP in Sharjah. This after de Villiers had scored an unbeaten 73 off just 33 balls against KKR.
The move did not go down well with the experts as they expressed their disbelief. De Villiers was out for 2 off 5 balls. Skipper Virat Kohli top-scored with 48 off 39 balls in his 200th game for RCB but it was Chris Morris’ 25 off 8 in the death overs that took the team to a competitive score of 171 to chase.
But with fifties from KL Rahul, and Chris Gayle, and a six off the final ball from Nicholas Pooran, saw Kings XI Punjab putting an end to their losing streak.
Source: IPLT20.com