Mumbai: AB de Villiers smashed a brilliant century and skipper Virat Kohli played a good supportive role as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) reached 235/1 in 20 overs against Mumbai Indians (MI) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.
Both De Villiers (133, 59b, 19x4, 4x6) and skipper Kohli (82, 50b, 6x4, 4x6) remained unbeaten as the duo hammered Mumbai bowlers all over the park.
The batting pair piled up an unbeaten 215-run partnership for the second wicket, which is also the highest partnership for all wickets in IPL history.
Opting to bat first, RCB got 14 runs off the first two overs, but what followed in the third over was some real drama on the field.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma dropped Chris Gayle on the fourth ball off Mitchell McClenaghan and Harbhajan Singh spilled Virat Kohli's catch in first slip off the next ball. Gayle and Kohli were 12 and 8, respectively, when the catches were dropped.
But Gayle (13 off 12) didn't hurt them much as Lasith Malinga in the very next over got rid of the Jamaican left-hander.
Gayle looked to slap the slower off-cutter well outside off and got another thick edge to the fine leg and fielder Lendl Simmons moved to his left and grabbed the ball with both hands. At that point of time, RCB were 20/1 in 3.1 overs.
With the dismissal of Gayle, came in another swashbuckling batsman de Villers. The South African didn't take much time to settle down as he unleashed his skillful shots soon after along with Kohli.
De Villiers hit the ball mercilessly, bringing up his 50 in just 29 deliveries. He went on hitting, sweeping, slogging the ball to bring up his hundred in only 47 balls.
He was well supported at the other end by Kohli who too struck it with ease scoring his half-century in 39 balls.
This was the sixth consecutive IPL season where Kohli has scored 300+ runs also bringing up his 3,000-plus runs in IPL.
