229 The partnership between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers is now the highest in Twenty20 cricket.
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RCB skipper Virat Kohli joins forces with Gayle and de Villiers to thrash KKR by nine wickets at Eden. Both the batsmen were at their best against Gujarat Lions and showed why they are called the best.
The embattled Gayle signalled his intentions from as early as the second over with a pair of fours off seamer Morne Morkel and followed up in the next over with a pair of giants sixes off fellow Jamaica and West Indies teammate, Andre Russell. For the next hour it was demolition job as the South African executed every shot in the book to bring up his ton in just 43 balls.
Realising the need to anchor the chase, Kohli stuck to one end and displayed his phenomenal skills. The Indian superstar hit 57 runs from his final 14 balls before falling for 109 off 55. He always wants to get better, which is good.
AB de Villiers chimed in with an unbeaten 59 from 31 deliveries, posting 115 with Kohli in an unbroken second wicket stand.
During his 75-run inning against Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous match, Kohli became the highest run scorer in a single IPL season.
3 The number of centuries scored by Kohli so far this season.
“It’s a big statement to say someone could be as successful as Tendulkar but at the moment Kohli is making every bowler look easy to play against”, Cork was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
Karthik called Kohli and De Villiers’ knocks mind-boggling. Indians love entertainment. They love to be entertained and if you can’t hit fours and sixes – get off the field. We could have batted well after the rivals had posted 248 runs. In an innings where the Gujarat bowlers were belted for an average of 12 runs an over, Kumar’s first over maiden has to be saluted as a statistical anomaly on an wonderful evening. The KXIP batsmen managed 120 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 14 overs, before rain chose to play spoilsport once again.
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“I started off slowly but he just took over and you saw what he can do when he gets set”.
