Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers helped Royal Challengers Bangalore overcome a major disruption to their plans and secure their fourth win of the season, bringing them level on points with the other top sides in the league. After Chris Gayle fell sick minutes before the match began and did not open, Royal Challengers stagnated, scoring only 67 for 3 by the 12th over, before de Villiers initiated the recovery during an aggressive partnership with Dilshan. Following Gayle’s dismissal for 4 – lbw to Brag Hogg’s quicker delivery – de Villiers and Dilshan blitzed 122 in 8.2 overs, as the ball flew to and over the boundary through a combination of inventive and orthodox shots. De Villiers launched five sixes, hitting 59 off 23 balls, while Dilshan, who had scored only 38 off his first 39, ended on 76 off 58 deliveries. They powered Royal Challengers to 189, a total that seemed a pipe dream earlier.
During Royals’ chase, Rahul Dravid played an innings similar to what Dilshan had done for Royal Challengers. Dravid opened and scored steadily at one end, motoring to a half-century, while his partners struggled at the other. The asking-rate was rising rapidly, though, and left-arm spinner KP Appanna, who was brought in for this game, broke Royals’ chase. He dismissed the top four Royals batsmen, beginning with the in-form Ajinkya Rahane and Owais Shah, to finish with 4 for 19. While Dravid did a Dilshan, no one did a de Villiers for Royals, and the upshot was a 46-run defeat.
The impact de Villiers had on the match was immediate. After taking a three off his first ball, he began the acceleration by hoisting offspinner Ajit Chandila for consecutive sixes over midwicket in the 13th over. They were the first sixes of Royal Challengers’ innings. Though the next two overs had only a boundary each in them, de Villiers and Dilshan ran aggressively to increase the run flow. Dilshan then broke free in the 16th over, lofting Siddharth Trivedi over the long-off boundary and pulling him for four through square leg. Hogg, who had troubled the earlier batsmen with his left-arm wrist spin, lost his line and length and was punished for consecutive boundaries by Dilshan. Even Kevon Cooper, who bowled economically in his first two overs, suffered towards the end, de Villiers carting him over the straight boundary before fishing out the reverse-paddle through fine leg.
