Ab de Villiers swung the game Royal Challengers Bangalore's way with a swashbuckling, unbeaten knock of 89 off 41 balls with six fours and eight sixers as they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets and one ball to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
AB de Villiers swung his countryman Dale Steyn for three sixers and a four and brought Bangalore with four runs off the final over after they needed 28 runs from the final two overs.
Steyn's over cost him 24 runs. Irfan Pathan bowled the final over as Mitchel Starc was run-out. Two were needed off the last two and De Villiers slammed Pathan for four to hoist RCB's victory.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore got off to a shocking start losing two wickets in the very first over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, a former RCB player. He produced an inswinger off the first ball he bowled and Parthiv Patel played it on going for a drive.
Off the last ball of the same over, he bowled an outswinger for variety and Virat Kohli tried to drive and only managed to snick it to wicket-keeper Naman Ojha. The local crowd could not believe what they were watching.
The Chris Gayle and Dale Steyn duel finally materialised as Gayle smashed a half pitched delivery keeping low behind the bowler for four. He missed the next one but again swung Steyn for four over cover.
A four and two huge sixers by Gayle welcomed the long-haired paceman Ishant Sharma
as the Bangalore team's total leapt up to 32 for 2 with Gayle making 26 off 16 balls with three fours and two sixers. But just one run later, Gayle swung leggie Karn Sharma straight to Darren Sammy at deep mid wicket and the West Indian accepted that gift gleefully.
>> Gallery: How ABD Tore Into Dale Steyn!
At 38 for 3 off 6.4 over, Bangalore were surely looking down the barrel as the run-rate crept up to 9.32 an over after the seventh.
South Africans AB de Villiers and Rilee Rossouw came together but Karn managed to pin them down and gave away a mere five runs in his next, and the team's 9th over. But de Villiers swung Irfan Pathan over long on in the next for six as Bangalore purged nine runs from that over. But Karn struck again having Rossouw leg before of the very first ball as the batsman tried a reverse sweep only to miss plumb in front. at 59 for four after 10.1 overs, Bangalore were in deeper trouble.
The last recognised batting pair of AB de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh produced some fireworks as they slammed a six each of Pathan and Sharma but an average of 11 an over in the last seven was surely
not an easy task.
De Villiers produced some fine strokes but failed to beat the field nonetheless picked up singles and twos.
However, Sharma struck for the third time having Yuvraj caught by substitute Moises Henriques at deep square after making just 14, his intended pull landing straight into another former RCB man.
De Villiers took 18 runs off Sammy's over with two sixers and a four to complete 50 breezy runs in 23 deliveries with his team needing 40 runs off the last four overs.
Dale Steyn put the brakes giving away just three runs and the home team needed 37 runs in 18 balls.