One of the greatest batsman in the world, AB de Villiers said he feels privileged to be on the winning side and be a part of the Indian Premier League final. He has not played in an IPL final in his six years with RCB, and was ecstatic about their win at the post-match press conference.
In a thriller of a game last night, Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Gujarat Lions by four wickets in the first Qualifier at the Chinnaswamy stadium. AB stole the show with his match-winning 79 not out off 47 balls, and his innings will be remembered as one of his best knocks for a long time to come.
The batting legend is the second highest run-getter this season, with 682 runs in 15 matches and is only second to the RCB Skipper Virat Kohli who has scored 919 runs so far.
"To be in IPL final means much to me and I have not played in a lot of finals throughout my career. Having played for RCB for six years have not seen playing in finals. It is a great honour and privilege to be in the finals with this great franchise which has looked after me and the team over the years."
RCB were almost written-off from the tournament after an unimpressive first-half, but came back stronger winning five out of five games, to book their place in the finals. The bowlers were under-performing, and the playing eleven were being changed too often, as they struggled to get the right combination.
Also read: Bowlers have played huge role in RCB's turnaround, says Yuzvendra Chahal
"Lot of people were saying we were under performing but moments like this makes things worthwhile. We had a great team spirit for some years now, and have played some good cricket. But never got to really enjoy the finals and hopefully we will win it but we don't know what's going to happen," De Villers said.
It was a funny wicket and chasing over 160 would have been tricky: de Villiers
The Chinnaswamy wicket which is generally known to be a batting paradise, behaved in an odd manner yesterday, and all batsmen barring Dwayne Smith of Gujarat and Mr. 360 of RCB were struggling to get-going. The Man of the Match, AB added on, saying that anything above 160 would have been difficult to chase.
The par score at the Chinnaswamy is usually 170-180. It was the first time in this IPL, that Kohli got out for a duck, and the RCB batting line-up collapsed to 29 for 5 in the power play.
"Yes, it was funny kind of a wicket. While we were bowling, I thought anything above 160 we will be in trouble. The wicket didn't seem like a wicket we can go and score out there.
"I always felt I needed a partnership and a foundation in the first six overs (to see the team through)," he said.
RCB have now directly qualified for the final to be played in Bangalore on 29 May.
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