De Villiers’ batting made the difference: Washington Sundar

After struggling to get going initially on a slow Sharjah track, AB de Villiers took the opposition by storm smashing an unbeaten 73 from just 33 balls to power RCB to 194/2.

Hyderabad: Royal Challengers Bangalore dished out a commanding performance to defeat Kolkata Knight Riders by massive 82 runs to jump to third position in points table in IPL on Monday.

After struggling to get going initially on a slow Sharjah track, AB de Villiers took the opposition by storm smashing an unbeaten 73 from just 33 balls to power RCB to 194/2.

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Speaking on de Villiers’ innings, Washington Sundar said, “Before the game started, we did feel that it might slow down as the game progresses. But the way AB batted, literally made a difference. We felt that 160 would be a very good score but the way he batted, any ground wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal (1/12) and Sundar (2/20) played crucial parts in their side’s victory by restricting the Dinesh Karthik-led side to 112/9. Sundar revealed that keeping it simple was his mantra. “I just want to keep things simple and hit the hard length over and again. That’s something which has been working for me in this particular season. I didn’t want to try too many things just because you’re playing in Sharjah and a very important win for us.”

The addition of Chris Morris made the RCB bowling unit more effective and Sundar lauded the South African all-rounder. “Definitely I think this is what the management would have thought of coming to this tournament, playing him, the composition looks very good in the team. In the last two games he played, he won the game for us. Hopefully, he will do a lot more of that for RCB.”

He is also of the opinion that going with six bowlers worked well. “The fact that we are playing six bowlers today was very good and we clearly would have seen the result also, winning by 82 runs against a team like KKR. It does boost a lot of confidence in our team,” Sundar concluded.

Meanwhile, KKR captain Karthik said de Villiers took the game away from them. “AB de Villiers showed why he is a very good player. Time and time again to come out there and score 80 runs of the (last) five overs is not an easy one, but I think he made it look much easier than what it was.”

“If they had scored 60 runs, and you know the 20 runs could have been made a bit different between 175 and 195. Always chasing 195, on a slightly slower wicket may not be that easy.”

With Sunil Narine reported for suspected bowling action, KKR went for Tom Banton and he opened the innings along with Shubman Gill. However, he failed to impress scoring just eight runs from 12 balls. Speaking on Banton opening the innings, Karthik said, “Once you play Tom Banton I think you’ve got to make sure that he opens because that’s where he is best at. He’s somebody who has opened in international cricket and done well. So that was the reason why we stuck with him as an opener.”

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