AB De Villiers role as wicket-keeper gives much-needed balance to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) according to player Washington Sundar. With AB De Villers keeping the wickets, the team gets a chance to play an extra batsman or bowler, ANI reported quoting Washington Sundar.
He added that RCB pacers and spinners also get help in their thought process when AB De Villiers is behind the wickets. Washington Sundar said that AB De Villiers can do whatever the team management wants him to do.
“It adds a lot of balance and he behind the wickets also gives bowlers a lot of thought process and he adds a lot of value to the team,” Washington Sundar said.
AB De Villiers Keeps Wickets Instead Of Josh Philippe
In the last match against Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore dropped regular keeper Josh Philippe and entrusted AB De Villers with keeping the wickets. The right-handed batsman performed his duties well behind the wickets by taking the catch of MI batsman Suryakumar Yadav off pacer Isuru Udana’s delivery.
AB De Villiers also contributed with the bat in the match against Mumbai Indians. He smashed an unbeaten 55 off 24 deliveries. In his excellent knock, he hit four boundaries and as many sixes.
RCB posted 201/3 after three of their batsmen Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch and AB De Villiers scored the 50s. Gurkeerat Singh, Isuru Udana and Adam Zampa and RCB won by virtue of scoring more runs in Super Over after a late assault of MI batsmen Kieron Pollard and Ishan Kishan who missed out on a century by a whisker.
AB De Villiers Showed Consistency After Scoring Two 50s In Three Matches
AB De Villiers has shown consistency in IPL 2020 as of now. In the first fixture against SunRisers Hyderabad, which Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 10 runs, AB De Villiers scored 51 in 30 deliveries, smashing four boundaries and two sixes.
In that clash, RCB batted first and set a target of 164 for SRH. Devdutt Padikkal who opened in the match against SRH, also helped his side put up a decent total by scoring 56 in 42 balls, hitting eight fours.
Chasing the total, David Warner-led Sunrisers Hyderabad got all out for 153. For Hyderabad, Jonny Bairstow made 61 off 43 and Manish Pandey 34 off 33 balls. Apart from these two and Priyam Garg who scored 12 runs, none of the other batsmen crossed double digits.
In the RCB’s second game against Kings XI Punjab, AB De Villiers made 28 off 18 balls. In that match, Washington Sundar was the highest run-scorer for RCB, hitting 30 in 27 deliveries.
Kings XI Punjab handed a crushing defeat to RCB. KL Rahul-led KXIP made 206 for the loss of three wickets. KL Rahul himself smashed the maiden century of IPL 2020 in that fixture. RCB, batting second got all out at a paltry score of 109, losing the match by 97 runs.