IPL 2021: RCB hasn’t played its best cricket yet, but we are getting close, says batter AB de Villiers

By ANI

DUBAI: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter AB de Villiers has said that the Virat Kohli-led side has not played their best cricket yet, but they are getting close which augurs well for them heading into the playoffs.

“Fantastic win, we’re very happy with that, came up short in the last game, but we came up with a last-ball win tonight, so happy. We showed a lot of character as a bowling group, we haven’t always had the best of starts in the first six, which we’re better tonight. We didn’t let Dhawan and Shaw get off to a great start and then pulled things back very well in the back-end. It’s been amazing, shows once again that there is a lot of character in this bowling unit, we’ll need a lot more, but very happy with the way the boys have gone,” de Villiers told host broadcaster Star Sports after the game against Delhi Capitals ended.

“I’m feeling good, haven’t had a lot of opportunities so far, I’m hitting the ball well, had a bit of a slow start today – thought they bowled well to me on a deck that wasn’t easy to bat on, but I’m striking them well, working hard at the nets and ready to come for the next matches. I think we need to do what we are doing and maybe up it a notch, have been speaking about peaking at the right time. We haven’t played our absolute best, but we’re getting close. If we can get that twitch in the finals, hopefully, there are good things to come,” he added.

Srikar Bharat and Glenn Maxwell played unbeaten knocks of 78 and 51 respectively as RCB defeated Delhi Capitals by seven wickets at the Dubai International Stadium. On the last ball, RCB needed five for a win, and Bharat ended up hitting the ball for a six off the bowling of Avesh Khan.

Earlier, Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan played knocks of 48 and 43 as Delhi Capitals posted a total of 164/5 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Apart from Dhawan and Shaw, Shimron Hetmyer also got among the runs as he played a knock of 29. For RCB, Mohammed Siraj returned with two wickets.

Delhi Capitals finished at the top spot in the points table and now the side will square off against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Qualifier 1 on Sunday. On the other hand, RCB finished at the third spot and Virat Kohli’s team will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Eliminator on Monday.