When two batsmen of the same team are in rampage then we can witness vintage cricket. IPL 9 season came to live when both AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli were in form of their lives hitting out at each and everything at the fag end of the Bangalore Royal Challengers innings at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. When the season was drawing to a close without much of heroics, Virat Kohli, the skipper hit out 109 off 55 balls with 5 fours and 8 sixes and AB de Villiers went one step further by hitting 129 of 52 balls with 10 fours and 12 sixes and added 229 runs for the first wicket and propelled the team’s total to 248 in 96 balls, a tournament record for any wicket. In the process they pushed RCB in with an outside chance of reaching last four stage. The run rate was alarming before this match slightly improved with 144 runs in a one sided contest. There was no stopping of these two men on top form as they plundered the hapless bowlers of Gujarat Lions to all the parts of the ground and made mockery of the bowlers. Virat Kohli, thus so far scored 677 runs this season with three centuries to his credit.
S. Abhishek Ramaswamy
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