IPL: AB de Villers Delivers A Knockout Punch To Deccan

Deccan Chargers strengthened their hold onto the last spot, when the South African captain AB De Villiers blew the greatest fast bowler in the world- Dale Steyn apart. All other performances paled in comparison with the quality of De Villiers stroke making.

Deccan finally got a change at the top of the order when Daniel Harris joined Shikhar Dhawan. The new opening combination worked wonders and the two of them scored 86 runs in 12 overs. Harris got dismissed for 47, but Dhawan continued in his merry ways. He made 73 runs off 52 balls, and Cameron White gave the innings the final flourish with a quick fire innings of 45 runs. The score of 181 for 2 in 20 overs looked imposing, the strong RCB batting line-up notwithstanding. Vettori had dropped himself from the team, and his Muralitharan who returned in his place performed the way everyone is so accustomed to - giving away just 18 runs in his quota of overs.

RCB started brightly, with Dilshan being the run getter. Gayle as is his wont off late, kept feeding the strike to his partner, and the Sri Lankan kept hitting the boundaries. Gayle was just getting warmed up as he smashed Anand Rajan for one of the biggest sixes off the tournmanet, but the bowler had his back off the next ball itself, with the perfect yorker. Kohli, Asad Pathan and Dilshan followed the West Indian back to the pavilion and the task kept getting stiffer as Deccan tightened the screws. With 65 needed of 4.4 overs, Mayank Agarwal joined ABDe in the middle and he set the ball rolling with an innings of 18 off 6 balls. That was just the impetus his side needed, and De Villiers took it away from there. 39 were needed off three overs, two of them to be bowled by Steyn. The first ball got pulled over the mid wicket fence, the third for a slog for a boundary, the next one which would have been a yorker to most batsmen got lofted over the cover boundary bringing a smile on the bowler's face too. And then to top it all off, he scooped a 142kph ball to the fine leg boundary. The on slaught left DC shell shocked and poor Anand Rajan was like lamb to the slaughter as 19 came off his 5 deliveries, to finish off the match.

Deccan put in a good performance yet again, but were out classed by a batsman at the peak of his powers.