De Villiers, Kohli tons in record IPL win
AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli made near-perfect centuries to power Royal Challengers Bangalore to 248 and set up a 144-run victory - a record margin in the IPL -over the shell-shocked Gujarat Li
AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli made near-perfect centuries to power Royal Challengers Bangalore to 248 and set up a 144-run victory - a record margin in the IPL -over the shell-shocked Gujarat Li
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Vishal Dikshit
We still have the presentation...
Kohli: I have all the right to smile today, everything went as per plans despite losing the toss. It can be pretty disheartening after losing 9 out of 11 tosses. It feels good that the guys are ready for it, our equation is pretty clear as it's like the playoffs from here. We don't want to push or pressurise ourselves too much, we know we are batting with intent and with good strike rates. It's important to not get ahead of ourselves, if you try extra you might end up scoring 150 instead of 180. We don't think about the game too much, we just react instinctively, and play smart cricket. I didn't want to speak about how well we had played and we gave the guys a realistic target of 170 to defend for the NRR. The guys have responded very well at the business and of the tournament. We want to take the responsibility and take the pressure. Everyday is a new opportunity for some youngster to perform and win the game for RCB, that's the most exciting thing going ahead.
AB is the Man of the Match: A lot of things played a role today, I walked out there feeling scareless, no fear of losing my wicket. Virat and I made good decisions while batting and assessed things very well and we accelerated very well at the end. I hate facing dot balls in T20s and I'm disappointing with the ones today (nine against Jadeja). Jaddu bowled very well today. It's about playing the right shots at the right time, it wasn't just about the boundaries. (Laughs) I'm really angry for facing those dot balls today!
Hard to believe but I can stop typing now as the focus shifts to the Eden Gardens where Dhoni has opted to bat. That's all from this record-breaking match, time to say goodbye!
7.16pm That's the biggest margin of win in IPL - 144 runs, beats KKR's 140-run win in the opening match of the first IPL. Big smiles and laughters for the RCB players as they walk off...Kohli and Aaron talk about how time was a factor towards the end; Gayle shares a joke with Watson. That was some batting firepower shown by AB and Kaohli today - footwork, power of the arms, class, technique, running between the wickets and all those combined to break several record. You can have a look at them here.
RCB are still at sixth place, albeit with 10 points, above Kings XI and Pune Supergiants. The Lions are at second place, Raina should be back for their next match but they would need a lot more to turn things around from there.
McCullum: We hard two world-class batters today and they played two of the greatest T20 innings in the history. Pretty disappointing for us but great to watch as a fan. We tried spin against AB but he took them on early on and got us back under pressure. We tried spin, tried to bowl short, tried to take the pace off but nothing worked. We'll try to dust this off and flush this down and come back stronger. Hopefully our skipper will be back in the next game and we'll try to get us through to the semi-finals. Margins can look great on paper but we need to get early wicketsâŠbut there's one team that turned up today. We'll try and turn things around now.
Thilan: "Wow Jordan performed well today when the pressure was on! Either a pasting or match winning performances by him it seems."
Shagird Patel: "Only AB and KL Rahul did not bowl today. Good team effort huh !! :)"
Tamilmani : "Is Kaushik batting in a normal way or anything else??? " Pretty normal, just like AB's batting today
Mustafa Moudi: "It took 8 long years to break the higjhest Margin Win record of 140 runs. I wonder how many years it would take to break the new one ???" Play them all at Bangalore and it may take only a few matches
Nikhil Tambolka: "With this massive win, RCB has bulldozed to the best run rate position in the table!!!"
Wilson: "Its only ironic that B Mac is captaining the team which is routed by RCB by 144 runs. He was the man who fashioned that victory of 140 runs by KKR against the same team...!"
S Kaushik c Aravind b Sachin Baby 0 (1m 1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0
AJ Finch c Aravind b Sachin Baby 37 (49m 38b 3x4 1x6) SR: 97.36
I thought Raina had a baby. RCB have one too and he'll bowl now
Saurabh: "Even pacers should take couple of steps and bowl the overs like Gayle did! They can't afford to lose VK for next game!"
Gujarat Lions captain Suresh Raina is in the Netherlands, awaiting the birth of his first child, and is unlikely to take part in the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday
Virat Kohli said that better belief in his ability to clear the boundary and pick gaps has been at the forefront of his consistency in Twenty20 cricket
Fast bowler Chris Jordan, who took a career-best 4 for 11 against Gujarat Lions, credited the stunning partnership between AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli for setting up a win for Royal Challengers Bangalore
How Twitter reacted to AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli putting on the biggest stand in T20 cricket
Plays of the day from the record-breaking match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Lions in Bangalore