AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli jointly orchestrated a mayhem by scoring magnificent centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore demolished a hapless Gujarat Lions by a record margin of 144 runs, in the Indian Premier League, in Bengaluru, on Saturday.
After being put into bat, RCB plundered a massive 248 for three with records falling like ninepins at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In reply, Gujarat Lions came up with a disappointing performance with the bat and were bowled out for a paltry 104 in 18.4 overs. RCB also broke the record for the biggest margin of victory in the history of IPL.
While this is the second highest team score in the history of IPL behind RCB's 263 for five against Pune Warriors, the Kohli-de Villiers combine eclipsed its own partnership record by pummeling the Lions to add a staggering 229 runs from 98 balls for the second wicket.
The previous best was 215 against Mumbai Indians during the last edition.
In fact, Kohli also became the first player in the history of IPL to score two centuries against the same opponents in one edition of the league and also the first batsman to hit three hundreds in a single edition of the IPL.
De Villiers smashed a scintillating unbeaten 129 off 52 balls with 10 fours and 12 maximums while Kohli hit a brilliant 109 off 55 balls with the help of five fours and eight sixes.
De Villiers, whose 43-ball century was the fifth fastest in IPL, teed off to get the maximum number of sixes in an innings by any individual batsman.
In all, the duo hit an astounding 20 sixes compared to 15 boundaries as the square of the M Chinnaswamy stadium looked too small at times.
The start was not that great for RCB, considering Chris Gayle, who made six, was completely out of touch before he inside edged a Dhawal Kulkarni delivery back on to his stumps.
Kohli was cautious to begin with as de Villiers the first to get off the blocks with a flurry of sixes. The first was a cover driven six off left-arm chinaman bowler Shivil Kaushik.
In the next over, he slogged Pravin Tambe behind square for another huge blow as RCB innings got the momentum after a slow start.
Dhawal Kulkarni's friendly medium pace was imperiously pulled for a six. When de Villiers completed his hundred, Kohli was still in his 50s but he also joined the party and went on the attack in the last few overs of the innings.
A flurry of sixes off Kaushil, Dwayne Bravo and Praveen Kumar saw Kohli reaching the coveted hat-trick of tons in the final over of the innings.
The last five overs of the innings went for a massive 112 runs, going at over 22 runs per over. Infact, the last three overs went for 75 runs and the only saving grace for Gujarat Lions were the two wickets off the last two deliveries of the innings with Praveen Kumar getting the wickets of the Kohli and Shane Watson.
With the chase practically out of question, Gujarat were not in the game from the beginning as they lost Dwayne Smith for seven while playing across the line off left-arm seamer Sreenath Arvind in the second over.
Stand-in captain Brendon McCullum did not last long as he walked back after having scored 11 runs. He was caught brilliantly by de Villiers off Chahal at long-off as he tried a big hit down the ground.
Pacer Chris Jordan also joined the act at the other end by taking two wickets in consecutive balls. First he sent Dinesh Karthik (2) with de Villiers taking another good catch before the England pacer grabbed a sharp return catch off Ravindra Jadeja after he had scored 21 after being promoted to No. 3 in the place of the absent Suresh Raina, who missed his first game in the IPL since its inception in 2008. The Gujarat Lions captain had left for the Netherlands last week to be with his wife Priyanka for the birth of their first child.
With the team struggling at four for 44, the spine of the visiting team was broken completely. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals including the flamboyant Dwayne Bravo for 30 and in no time were reduced to a lowly 74 for eight in 12.5 overs.
Aaron Finch was the top-score with 37 as he battled hard with the lower order but by then the result was a foregone conclusion.
Jordan again struck twice in his third over to claim the wickets of Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni in his third over to finish with superb figures of four for 11 in three overs.
With Kohli looking to rush off his over and escape another fine for slow rate, he handed the ball to part-timer Chris Gayle and Sachin Baby among others. The latter finished off things as he picked up the wickets of Finch and Shivil Kaushik in his final over as Gujarat were bundled out for 104 in the penultimate over to lose by a huge margin.
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