IPL 2018 | Two down and two more to go, we are fighting, says AB de Villiers

With a 10 wicket win over KXIP in their last game, RCB have managed to keep themselves alive in the tournament for the race of the playoffs and even though that chance might be very slim, de Villiers asserted that the team would not go down without a fight. He described the match against KXIP as perfect, in which they crushed KXIP and bundled them out for 88 runs in 15.1 overs.   

“Well, that’s one way to meet the challenge of containing the opposing batsmen in the last five overs of their innings: bowl them out in 15 overs,” wrote de Villiers in his column for TOI. "That’s precisely what happened in our ‘perfect match’ against KXIP in Indore, and the win keeps our dream of progressing to the playoffs alive. There have been days during the past few weeks when it felt as if absolutely nothing would go right for us; in contrast, this was a day when it felt as if nothing would go wrong.”

RCB is currently placed on the seventh spot and tied with Mumbai Indians with 10 points. RCB must win both of their remaining matches and hope other matches’ results to go in their favor to stand a chance to qualify for the knockouts. De Villiers insisted that there would be no room for errors and they would have to fight till the end. 

“We knew we had to win each of our last four league matches,” said de Villiers. “There is still plenty of work to be done, at home against Sunrisers Hyderabad and away against Rajasthan Royals, and we still have no room for error, but you never know. Two down and two to go, we are fighting.”

RCB bowlers have had to experience criticisms for their failures to defend huge totals, however, de Villiers was of the opinion that the bowlers have received unfair criticism and pointed out that they have got their line and back as seen in the match against KXIP. 

“Our bowlers have received some unfair criticism during this tournament, but they found their lines and lengths when it mattered. Umesh Yadav set the tone, using raw pace to blast through the KXIP top order, and our fielding maintained the pressure. With three runouts, the home side were dismissed for 88 in 15.1 over,” wrote the 34-year-old, who has so far scored 358 runs at an average of 51.14 from ten matches.

The South African further added that the team would not go down quietly and have a strong mindset.

“RCB are not going quietly. Our collective mindset is strong. After playing in Delhi, we faced a long day of travelling on Monday, featuring huge storms. Nobody complained,nobody moaned.”