AB de Villiers destroys Hyderabad to guide Bangalore home

AB de Villiers' power-packed 89 from just 41 balls helped Bangalore beat Hyderabad by four wickets to clinch their third win in the Indian T20 league on Sunday.

Bangalore's batsmen struggled at the start of their 156-run chase and lost Parthiv Patel and captain Virat Kohli in the second over of their innings.

Rilee Rossouw, who was sent in to bat at 6 for 2 on his debut, was out after scoring 14 off 23 and then Yuvraj Singh followed for just 14 runs in the 15th over.

While Bangalore lost wickets regularly at one end, AB de Villiers looked solid at the other and launched anything remotely full over the straight boundary.

De Villiers was on 33 from 19, and had already struck three sixes, when Yuvraj departed. But Bangalore still faced a daunting task and needed 61 from 33 balls to win.

The South African batsman switched gears in the 16th over and smashed Darren Sammy for two sixes and a four. Dale Steyn and Bhuvneshwar Kumar pulled things back in the next two overs and conceded just two boundaries.

Still 28 runs adrift with two overs left, Bangalore needed some late fireworks from de Villiers to guide them home, and he delivered.

The right-hander launched Steyn for three sixes and a four and closed the gap to just four from the last over. He then scored the winning runs with another four.

"It is one of those nights where things go your way. I had a Skype session with my mom and dad today, and my dad said, the others are lucky. Guess I had my luck today," de Villiers said.

"He (Steyn) won the first set and I won the second. I would have loved to have a third set against him. In those kinds of situations it is the small things that matter the most. It is team spirit, such things that matter in the end. Yuvraj kept boosting me up tonight, got to give credit to him."