De Villiers, Kohli demolish Lions

 Gujarat Lions were at the receiving end of a spectacular assault from A B de Villiers and Virat Kohli as the Royal Challengers Bangalore stayed in contention for an Indian Premier League play-off berth with a record-shattering win on Saturday.

It had taken nine editions for Virat Kohli to strike his first IPL century but in just about 20 days after he got his first T20 hundred against Gujarat Lions last month in Rajkot, the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper became the first batsman to reel off 3 three-figure scores in a single season.

The right-hander struck a superb 109 (55, 5x4, 8x6) to tighten his grip over the Orange Cap for the highest run-getter but it was AB de Villiers who stole the thunder with a bone-chilling unbeaten 129 (52b, 10x4, 12x6) that helped RCB pick up their fifth win in 11 matches.

For the record, RCB rode on a record 229-run partnership (97 balls) between de Villiers and Kohli for the second wicket to amass 248 for three after being put into bat first at the packed Chinnaswamy stadium. Lions do possess a power-packed batting line-up and there was nothing to write home about RCB’s bowling. Yet, Lions caved in meekly under the sheer weight of runs on the board – folding up for a paltry 104 in 18.4 overs to suffer a massive 144-run loss.

The defeat is the biggest in terms of margin of runs in IPL. This was Lions’ fifth loss this edition and they need at least another win from their two remaining matches to progress to last-four.

It’s a rare occasion to see a batsman score a hundred in a T20 match and rarer still is two batsmen getting a century each.

 Only on one occasion such a feat had been accomplished in England by Kevin O’Brien (119) and Hamish Marshill (102) for Gloucestershire against Middlesex in 2011 and de Villiers and Kohli became the first pair in IPL to replicate it. While it was de Villiers’ second IPL hundred, Kohli reached 677 runs for IPL-9, becoming the first captain to gather 600-plus runs in a season twice.

Lions needed an explosive start to come anywhere near the target but they quickly slipped 47 for five that killed the game as a contest.