AB de Villiers scored a fantastic half century, as Royal Challengers Bangalore staged a brilliant comeback by defeating the Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Robin Uthappa opening the innings for the first time , got Rajasthan Royals off to a flying start in the first six overs, as he along with Ben Stokes added 50 runs for the opening stand, before the latter was dismissed by Chris Morris.
Yuzvendra Chahal in the eight over struck twice by removing both Uthappa and Sanju Samson in succession to peg Rajasthan back.
RR skipper Steve Smith and Jos Buttler steadied the ship with a crucial 55 run stand for the fourth wicket, before Buttler was caught by Saini off Morris for 24.
Smith and Rahul Tewatia struck some lusty blows at the end, as Rajasthan Royals ended up with a competitive total of 177/6 at the end of 20 overs.
Chris Morris was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/26.
Chasing 178, RCB got off to decent start, with Aaron Finch and Devdut Padikkal adding 23 runs, before Finch was dismissed by Shreyas Gopal.
Padikkal along with skipper Virat Kohli put on 79 runs for the second wicket, before the 20 year old fell to Rahul Tewatia for a well made 35.
In the next delivery,Tewatia took a sensational catch at the boundary off Kartik Tyagi to send back the RCB captain.
The former Proteas captain took the game deep and smashed Jaydev Unadkat for 25 runs in the penultimate over to tilt the game in RCB’s favour. His innings of 55 came in just 22 balls, with a solitary four and six sixes.
Gurkeerat Singh Mann also played a supporting role by scoring a crucial boundary in the 19th over, to bring the equation down to 10 off six balls.
De Villiers scored the winning runs by smashing Archer’s fourth delivery over deep midwicket fence, as Royal Challengers reached the target of 179, with two balls to spare.
AB de Villiers was declared the Player of the Match.