IPL 2018 | M Chinnaswamy stadium must become the fortress of the RCB team, says AB de Villiers

Mumbai Indians have the Wankhede, Kolkata Knight Riders have Eden Gardens, Sunrisers Hyderabad have the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium and Chennai Super Kings have MA Chidambaram Stadium which they have called home for a while now. One of the key factors of performing well in the Indian Premier League is to win the team’s home matches throughout the season and AB de Villiers highlighted this aspect as an important objective of the Bangalore-based franchise ahead of the team’s first home match today against Kings XI Punjab.

“For RCB in 2018, the M Chinnaswamy stadium must become so much more than just our home stadium in Bengaluru - it must once again become our fortress. I have grown to love the place… the atmosphere, the history and, more than anything, the supporters who fill the grandstands every time RCB take the field,” wrote the 34-year-old in his column for TOI.

He maintained that the Virat Kohli-led team will head into today’s match hunting for their first win of the 2018 season against Ravichandran Ashwin’s KXIP outfit today. Former RCB player KL Rahul set a new record as he scored the tournament’s fastest fifty in KXIP’s opening match against DD in just 14 balls. He will line up against his former side today and face a friend in the form of RCB skipper Virat Kohli.

“Our home season starts with the visit of KXIP on Friday. We have done our homework and they are another powerful team; in fact, this already feels like the strongest IPL ever. So we will need to bat well, to bowl in the right places, to field like tigers and to get the crowd excited and energised. Then, for sure, the Chinnaswamy will roar again.

“In all the IPL tournaments up to and including 2016, the average run-rate at Chinnaswamy was 8.61 runs per over, the highest in all India; but, in 2017, this scoring rate slumped to 7.42 runs per over. These are the simple facts,” he wrote. “Batsmen were struggling to get going at the ground where, on one unforgettable occasion, Chris Gayle hit 175, the highest individual score ever in the IPL, and where RCB sides have amassed 263 and 248, the highest team totals in IPL history,” said De Villiers who is RCB’s third-highest run-getter with 2877 from 94 innings.