On this day in 2020: AB de Villiers’ storm sinks Knight Riders at Sharjah

It was a fine batting act that propelled Royal Challengers Bangalore on this very day in 2020 over a famished Kolkata Knight Riders in what eventually a lopsided encounter. Playing at Sharjah, AB de Villiers dished out a signature masterclass to unhorse the Knights.

Batting first, Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal gave the Royal Challengers a fine start as the duo piled up 67 runs for the opening stand while Virat Kohli played the perfect anchor alongside the Australian opener to keep the momentum going.

Things changed, however, once the South African legend walked out to bat. After surviving an early scare, ABD started swinging his willow and by the time the Knights could realize the magnitude of the damage, he had insidiously grown bigger than the game and what followed thereafter was absolute chaos.

From 94 for 2 in 12.2 overs, ABD’s 33-ball-73 catapulted RCB to a staggering 194 with both Virat and De Villiers staying unbeaten for a collective display of excellence. The South African batting maven hammered 5 fours and 6 sixes en route to his destruction of the Knights.

In response to RCB’s crafty batting, there was very little that the Knight Riders could do as they started losing early wickets and the decline could not be arrested as only three KKR batters could successfully cross the double-figure mark.

Shubman Gill was the highest scorer for the night with a hard-fought 34 while Chris Morris and Washington Sundar were the picks of the lot for RCB as the duo shared 4 wickets between them while the others came together with equal support helping the Challengers script a remarkable 82-runs victory to climb up to the third position in the points table.