De Villiers, Kohli flatten Gujarat

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli plundered a hapless Gujarat bowling attack to help Bangalore achieve a record 144-run win at the Chinnaswamy stadium. De Villiers thrashed ten fours and 12 sixes in his unbeaten 129 off 52 balls while Kohli smacked five fours and eight sixes in his 109 from 55 balls. The pair combined to add a record 229-run second-wicket stand - the highest partnership in T20 cricket. The stand propelled Bangalore to post a record 248 for 3 in 20 overs.

Gujarat's stand-in captain Brendon McCullum opted to field on a typically flat Bangalore pitch. Dhawal Kulkarni, struck early when he removed the out-of-form Chris Gayle for 6 in the fourth over, which brought de Villiers to the crease. De Villiers stamped his authority when he slapped chinaman bowler Shivil Kaushik for a six off his third ball. De Viliiers then launched into the rest of Gujarat's bowling line-up, as he reached his fifty off only 25 balls. He accelerated further as the end overs approached and needed only 18 balls to move from a fifty to a century.

At the start of the 16th over, de Villiers was batting on 77, and he took Praveen Kumar for 23 runs in an over to reach his century at the end of the over. His century was studded by his trademark lap shots and powerful drills down the ground that cleared the small Chinnaswamy boundaries easily.

Kohli sat back and dropped anchor, before he cut loose in the end overs. He raced from 52 off 41 balls to surge to his third century in IPL 2016, in the last over of Bangalore's innings. He was particularly brutal on Kaushik, who was plundered for 30 runs in the 19th over.

If the embarrassing bowling effort wasn't enough for Gujarat, they were bowled out for 104 in 18.4 overs, with a not a single batsman passing 40.

"A lot of things played a role today, I walked out there with no fear of losing my wicket," de Villiers said after picking up the Man-of-the-Match award. "Virat and I made good decisions while batting and assessed things very well and we accelerated very well at the end. I hate facing dot balls in T20s and I'm disappointing with the ones today (nine against Jadeja). Jaddu bowled very well today. It's about playing the right shots at the right time, it wasn't just about the boundaries. (Laughs) I'm really angry for facing those dot balls today!"