Friday 15 / November / 2024
The beauty of the taming, torturing and killing of the Lions by AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday lay in the clever deception with which the murder most exciting was done by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
There was misleading innocence and non-violence about the first 10 overs that gave no hint of the merciless massacre about to unfold in the next 10. Seventy-six runs in the first half, with just two sixes — one in the fifth and the other in the sixth — with a barren, boring stretch of four overs preceding and a normal, formal patch of four following. The next 10 overs were loud and brutal.
When Chris Gayle struggled to time the ball and Kohli was quite on a pitch where Gujarat Lions’ opening bowlers Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni looked happy, and the scoreboard showed just 19 runs at the end of the fourth over with Gayle back in the dressing room, the playoffs prospects of the RCB looked seriously in danger. That was when we got to enjoy the class difference: between Kohli and ABD batting in tandem and the rest in the contemporary world. There’s nothing like that before in pairs in the past or the present, and we could only wish for something similar in the future.
What was it like really? Messi and Ronaldo playing on the same team, as Jos Buttler would tweet after the fireworks got over? We can’t rule out something like that actually happening because it’s possible for them getting signed up by the same club, but how about imagining something totally impossible, such as Pele and Maradona doing tiki-taka together to score 10 goals each in a Spanish league game? Well, in that case, we might as well witness a spat between the two post-match over who did what.
Here, between the Ronaldo and the Messi of cricket, there’s only respect, admiration and appreciation for each other. The understanding between ABD and Kohli is so good they don’t need to chat regularly in the middle of their business, unless of course when the situation is like what we witnessed on Saturday. With Kohli smashing three sixes off the bowling of Shivil Kaushik in the 19th over, De Villiers couldn’t help asking Kohli if he was “thinking what I’m thinking”. We now know both were on the same page as Kohli raced from 65 to 95 at the end of the over, hitting the hapless guy all over the ground to milk 30 runs. The previous over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo, too produced 30, but that was a combined effort, with both batsmen sharing the spoils. Now, with that in mind, what could have been ABD thinking to which Kohli said “keep quiet”? Try to do that alone, mate, or here’s your chance to score the third hundred of the IPL season?
Kohli reached his century off the third ball of the final over, with a vicious six straight down the ground, and celebrated his hundred with another six, whereas ABD got his hundred taking a single off the final ball of the 16th over, after smashing 6-6-4-6 off the previous four balls. That was an instance of amazing contrast in a partnership of inspiring camaraderie, but it’s completely in sync with cricket justice perhaps, in view of the subdued role Kohli played when De Villiers was setting the stadium, roof including, on fire.
The dash for the second run in the final over to give the strike back to Kohli so he could have his third 100 made De Villiers gasp for breath, and he was still panting during the post-innings chat. Kohli, 27, looked fresh and ready for another battle, but at 32 De Villiers was obviously tired. That’s one reason I will root for the RCB in the remaining three matches so the incredible duo could conjure up a few more rounds of magic. Enjoy it while it lasts.
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The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman
