Simply blown away by their pyrotechnics, West Indies left-hander Chris Gayle compared Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to fictional superheroes ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’, as the duo lit up the Indian Premier League with some dazzling display of top quality batsmanship.
“Those two guys are playing like ‘Batman and Superman’. They are in the form of their lives, especially Kohli. They should continue pressing the gas, don’t ease up and fill their boots with as much runs as possible. They are doing a phenomenal job for RCB,” Gayle said in the post-match media conference.
With 1349 runs from 12 matches, Kohli and de Villiers seemed to be unstoppable and are the top-two leading run-getters of the ninth season.
Their amazing form has swung the fortunes of Royal Challengers Bangalore, who routed two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets on Monday.
Carrying forward their stellar show of Bangalore where they ran riot with a record 229-run partnership in their colossal 144-run win over Gujarat Lions, Kohli (75 not out) and de Villiers (59 not out) made short work of KKR’s 183/5 to romp home with eight balls to spare.
It’s fantastic, they (Kohli and AB) are batting under pressure as well. Credit must go to both of them. Kohli leading from the front is even better. Overall, it’s a great team effort. Those guys may have contributed in all the 12 games so far. Hopefully, they can continue and put us in winning position.”
With three centuries and five fifties in his tally of 752 runs, ‘Orange Cap’ holder Kohli has lifted an otherwise lacklustre IPL and in the process has surpassed Chris Gayle’s 2012 record 733 runs in an IPL season.
Describing Kohli as a complete cricketer, Gayle said the Indian Test captain should go past 1000-mark.
I must congratulate him to achieve such a thing in IPL so far. With two more games, maybe he can get close to 1000 runs. And who knows, if we make the play-offs…”
Decoding Kohli’s success, Gayle said it’s the Indian’s hunger to better his previous performances that has been key to his success.
“It’s always about determination. He (Kohli) is a person who is never satisfied. He always actually wants to better his last performance which is good. For any batsman wanting to better your last performance, you keep building on that especially when you’re in a good form, capitalise on that and cash in on as much as possible,” Gayle said.
