IPL 2021: Superman AB de Villiers at it again, rescues RCB after early blows, helps them get to 171

Adjectives fall short of describing the man, i.e., AB de Villiers. He came in at 60/3 in the ninth over at the fall of the wicket of Glenn Maxwell and stayed unbeaten till the end. On the way to his innings of 75 off just 42 balls, he became the sixth batsman to amass 5000 runs in the IPL, first helped stabilise Royal Challengers Bangalore's innings with Rajat Patidar and then took the Delhi Capitals bowlers apart to take his side's score to 171/5 in 20 overs.

De Villiers gave the RCB side a much-needed push with three sixes in the last over accumulating 23 runs, bowled by Marcus Stoinis to take their score beyond 170-mark which gave it a more than just competitive look.

RCB were in dire straits losing both the openers skipper Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal in consecutive deliveries to Avesh Khan and Ishant Sharma respectively inside the powerplay. They were 36/2 after the first six overs, post which Glenn Maxwell took the centre stage and hit a couple of sixes off Amit Mishra. But the wily old fox Mishra had the last laugh as he removed Maxwell.

After which, Rajat Patidar and AB de Villiers stitched a partnership of 54 runs to take RCB towards the safer shores, however, some good bowling from Delhi Capitals kept the net run rate in check.

Despite AB de Villiers scoring at a brisk pace till then, RCB needed a big finish to ensure they have a score to challenge the Capitals' batting line-up and Capitals miscalculation in the bowling spells meant they had to give the final over to either Amit Mishra or Marcus Stoinis and they went with the latter.

And, De Villiers made the most the most out of it, smashing three sixes in the same.