Barca although 20/20 doesn't grab me I would not at all of minded seeing this:
Ex supersport
AB de Villiers conjured up one of the most scintillating batting displays seen at this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) as the South African batsman took on countryman Dale Steyn and won the contest comfortably.
Steyn may be the top-ranked fast bowler in the world but De Villiers seemed unfazed as he hammered 23 runs off a Steyn over to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a five-wicket win over the Deccan Chargers on Sunday.
De Villiers thrashed his way to 47 not out off 17 balls with five fours and three sixes but it was his dismantling of Steyn that had the Bangalore crowd on its feet, roaring their approval.
Steyn reached deep into his bag of tricks to try and unsettle De Villiers but the batsman had an answer for everything as he scored off every ball of the over in the sequence that went 6, 2, 4, 6, 4, 1.
Some of the strokes that De Villiers played were breathtaking, none more so than the six that he struck over extra-cover, especially if one considers that Steyn had fired in a 146km/h yorker.
De Villiers’ assault continued when he struck the first three balls of the next over, bowled by seamer Anand Rajan, for two fours and a flat six over midwicket.
De Villiers’ innings was so stunning that his team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan, a mean hitter of a cricket ball himself, described it as “one of the most unbelievable knocks I’ve seen in a long time.”
(AB has come of age and is now at the peak of his powers. One expects something really big of him now)
The unfortunate Steyn ended with figures of none for 30 off three overs despite bowling a maiden.
The win moved Bangalore to fifth in the table on 11 points, five points off the table-topping Delhi Daredevils.
De Villiers may have been setting the world alight with his bat but Marchant de Lange did his talking with the ball. (Forgot for amoment about Marchand - a huge prospect)
De Lange, playing in just his second IPL match, grabbed 3-34 off four overs to help the Kolkata Knight Riders to a seven-run win over the Pune Warriors.
The 21-year-old De Lange was superb with the new ball as he showed with wonderful aplomb when he bowled Michael Clarke with a delivery that beat the Australia captain for pace. De Lange’s contribution helped Kolkata into second place on the log, just one point behind Delhi.
De Lange was not the only South African paceman to make an impression on the IPL last week. Left-arm quick Wayne Parnell had been cooling his heels for the Pune Warriors before finally being thrust into the fray against the Decccan Chargers.
It was difficult to believe that Parnell had not played competitive cricket since before the start of the IPL as the 22-year-old bowler served up the superb figures of 4-1-25-1 as Pune slipped to a 13-run defeat. (This guy is still very young and hopefully can still makea big impact. Just needs to learn to bring the ball back to the right hander better)
Parnell followed up that performance with the economical figures of 4-0-18-0 against Mumbai but his efforts were not enough to stop Pune suffering a heart-breaking one-run defeat.
Pune have now slumped to second-bottom on the log after just four wins from eight matches.
Faf du Plessis begins this week as the fifth highest run-scorer in the tournament and, despite his form tapering off just a touch, he still managed a fine 42 off 35 balls on a slow pitch with uneven bounce as the Chennai Super Kings beat Deccan by 10 runs.
Yes indeed we MUST beat England.
What I would like to see is a five match series against Oz. really put those ozzies to the sword. Look forward to the cricket season.
