Royal Challengers Bangalore’s star campaigner AB de Villiers finally made his entry in the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and pushed his team to 148/4 in 20 overs against Kings XI Punjab at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Monday.
The 33-year-old legendary batsman scored a remarkable knock of 89 runs (not out) while batting responsibly for RCB after early blows.
De Villiers hit nine sixes and three boundaries to lift the spectators off their feet. Last year, the South African had slammed 37 sixes, second highest of the season after Virat Kohli (38 sixes).
At the helm, De Villiers was batting along-side Stuart Binny, who scored a causative 18 runs (not out).
Despite having De Villiers in the playing eleven today, RCB appeared under pressure since the beginning.
At top-order, skipper Shane Watson, wicketkeeper-batsman Vishnu Vinod and Kedar Jadhav were dismissed for 1, 7 and 1 run respectively within first five overs.
In the middle-order, Mandeep Singh managed to bat for a long while and contributed 28 runs to the total.
With De Villiers, Mandeep put a 46-run partnership stand for the fourth-wicket.
Mandeep was sent back to pavilion in the 14th over by Varun Aaron, who claimed his second wicket.
Sandeep Sharma and Axar Patel also joined in KXIP bowling attack, taking the scalp of Watson and Vinod respectively.