AB de Villiers' best IPL moments that don't fade away

AB De Villiers hitting his famous ‘scoop’ shot

89* (41) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Bengaluru, 2014

It was supposed to be a tight match. Actually no, scratch that; it was supposed to be an easy win for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

They had set Royal Challengers Bangalore a target of 156, and in response, RCB were in more than a spot of bother, tottering at 59 for four in 10 overs while still needing 98 off 60 balls. They slipped further to 95 for five after 14.3 overs, and it’s safe to say that things were looking pretty bleak for them at that point.

However, nobody told that to De Villiers, and on his day – as this was – there is nothing any bowler can really do to stop him. He smashed 89 off 41 balls in an innings that had eight sixes and just six fours. Most memorably, however, he stamped his authority on the game by demolishing the best bowler in the world, Dale Steyn, in an unforgettable over where he smashed three sixes and a four, looting 24 runs.

One of those sixes was a scoop that went over the third tier at the fine leg boundary. The shot was so audacious and creative that it got a round of applause from Steyn himself.

47* (17) vs Deccan Chargers, Bengaluru, 2012

This may not sound all that extraordinary on paper, but to witness the magician’s batting in real-time during that innings was to witness something truly out of the world.

Deccan Chargers had accumulated a strong total of 181 in their innings, leaving RCB with a tough task. And while Tillakaratne Dilshan provided solidity at the top with his 54-ball 71, the chase never looked easy, not least because a charging Dale Steyn was making life difficult for all the batsmen.

Steyn came back for his final spell with RCB needing 39 to win off 18 balls, and the writing seemed to be on the wall for the home team. But then, De Villiers manufactured a series of otherworldly shots to pillage 23 runs off that Steyn over, reducing the chase to a cakewalk. One shot that he hit in particular – an incredible six over long off to a near-perfect yorker – has remained burned in the memory of every person who laid eyes on it.

It may have been just a cameo, but it was perhaps the most special cameo in the history of the IPL. That innings, and that six, is the stuff that unforgettable memories are made of.