Royal Challengers Bangalore’s head coach Simon Katich described A.B. de Villiers as a “freak” who single-handedly won the game against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday.
“He is a freak, isn’t he? That’s why he is the greatest of all time. What we saw was another masterclass, we have seen a number of them already in this tournament.
“He had one here against Mumbai, and obviously the other day he got 73 off 33,” said Katich during the press conference.
The coach also said that they learned from their mistake in the last game and ensured that de Villiers batted at his usual No. 4 spot. The South African star had come in at No. 6 against KXIP on Thursday.
“We certainly made sure that he batted in his right position today [Saturday]. We certainly learnt from our mistake and he was wonderful.
“The reason we won was I think he was magnificent, Chris Morris was brilliant, (Yuzvendra Chahal) got us back in the game with his two wickets, we had a number of crucial performances but AB basically won us the game single-handedly.”
‘Serious batting’
Royals captain Steve Smith said it was just “serious batting” by de Villiers, who made the penultimate over look so “awful“.
“In hindsight and now in the result, yeah absolutely,” Smith said when asked if he should have bowled Jofra Archer in the 19th over.
“But look, it is a tough one. Jaydev bowls this cutters and stuff into the wicket and bowls really well normally to a long boundary at the leg side. It wasn’t an awful over, it was some pretty serious batting to be honest.
“There are not too many guys who can hit the ball the way AB did, under pressure, to a big side and clear the fence very easily... But hindsights are a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
