De Villiers blitz stuns Deccan

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Cricket365
May 6, 2012

A remarkable knock from AB de Villiers helped Bangalore to a thrilling five-wicket win over Deccan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

The Chargers gave themselves an excellent chance of winning only their third game in this year's IPL after posting 181 for two and then restricted the hosts to 117 for four in 15.2 overs.

But De Villiers produced a stunning array of boundaries – some came straight out of the manual as they went down the ground while others were reverse swept – and his 47 from 17 helped the Challengers to snatch victory.

The foundation of the chase was laid by Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chris Gayle at the top of the innings. The duo shared a 91-run opening stand, but Gayle remarkably only made 26.

Gayle was eventually dismissed by Anand Rajan and the Challengers lost their way as Virat Kohli and Asad Pathan fell for single digits in quick succession.

The Chargers looked like they were in control of matters when Pratap Singh bowled Dilshan for 71.

However, De Villiers had other ideas and he started his onslaught by smashing South Africa team-mate Dale Steyn for 23 in the 18th over and then hit another 15 runs off the first five balls of the 19 overs to seal the deal.

Earlier Daniel Harris and Dhawan shared an 86-run stand at the top of the knock to get the struggling Chargers off to a good start for a change.

Australian Harris was the more aggressive of the two early in the match and he smashed four sixes in his knock of 47 from 41. His knock came to an unfortunate end after a mix-up with his partner saw him run out at the non-striker's end.

However, Dhawan didn't stand back and new Cameron White continued where his compatriot left off.

The Indian went to his half-century off 39 balls while former Australia Twenty20 captain White used just 24 balls to make 45. He was dismissed after getting a top edge to left-arm pacer Prasanth Parameswaran, who took the return catch.

Kumar Sangakkara finished the innings with a six and a four to end with 10 from three balls while Dhawan was unbeaten on 73 from 52 balls.