print icon
All star of the match

AB de Villiers powers Bangalore win over Hyderabad

AB de Villiers got Bangalore's campaign off to a winning start as he thumped a 42-ball 82 to help his side outdo Hyderabad by 45 runs in their opening clash of the Indian T20 tournament played in Bangalore on Tuesday.

AB de Villiers got Bangalore's campaign off to a winning start as he thumped a 42-ball 82 to help his side undo Hyderabad by 45 runs in their opening clash of the Indian T20 tournament in Bangalore on Tuesday.
The first three matches of the 2016 edition of the tournament were relatively low-scoring affairs, but Bangalore's power-packed batting line up - comprising of de Villiers, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, produced the first high scorer, as they scored 227 in their innings.
David Warner, Hyderabad's captain, rued his decision to field first after he won the toss, as Kohli and de Villiers added 157 runs for the second wicket, after Gayle was dismissed in the second over of the match.
Mustafizur Rahman - making his competition debut - was the only Hyderabad bowler that kept the Bangalore's batsmen in check. He claimed two wickets in his four overs that yielded just 26 runs.
The Kohli-de Villiers combine took just one over to settle in, after they lost Gayle early. De Villiers was the first to switch gears and clubbed Ashish Nehra for two fours and a six in the fourth over of the match. He then targeted Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the fifth and claimed two more boundaries for his effort.
The early onslaught set the tone and laid the platform for a sizeable total. The power-packed display continued through the innings and de Villiers having already hit two sixes and three fours by ninth over, raised the tempo further thereafter.
He smashed Karn Sharma for two massive sixes - one of which hit the roof of the stadium - in the 10th over. Hyderabad's nightmare continued as they lost Nehra due to an injury in the 11th over. De Villiers and Kohli hit ten boundaries in the five overs that followed.
Rahman finally dismissed de Villiers in the 18th over, after he had smashed six sixes and seven fours. Sarfaraz Khan added the late fireworks, with a 10-ball 35 to help Bangalore post a target that eventually proved insurmountable. Hyderabad managed just 182 runs in reply.
"I absolutely love playing here. It was a nice busy innings with Virat. We enjoy running between the wickets. Like I said, I have been scratchy, even in the nets. The bowlers have played together for a few years. Watson and Milne have come in and the youngsters are feeding off the experience. It is always important to start well and find your identity as a team. This is the kind of cricket we want to play this year," de Villiers said.