His blistering 23-ball 59 formed the the cornerstone for Royal Challengers Bangalore's easy win, but A B de Villiers, in a nice gesture, shared his Man-of-the-Match award with K P Appanna, who turned in an impressive performance with the ball here today.
KP Appanna picked up four wickets after de Villiers' heroics as RCB defeated Rajasthan Royals by 46 runs in their Indian Premier League match.
"I had a good game, I enjoyed my batting. I'd like to hand over this award to the man who took four wickets, KP Appanna. I haven't done this before. It's a team game," de Villiers said.
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AB DeVilliers scored a blistering 59 off just 22 balls. Photo: AFP
"He (Appanna) took four wickets and it doesn't happen everytime... that should be the Man-of-the-Match award."
Appanna thanked the batsmen for posting a solid total. "On this track, getting to 190 was a great effort, and I got some turn from the track,"u00a0Appanna said.
RCB skipper Daniel Vettori was pleased with Appanna's effort.u00a0"He has come back after playing in one match and offers us a lot more options. Today he has showed what he is capable of," Vettori said.
"The way Zak (Zaheer Khan), Vinay (Kumar) and Harshal Patel (bowled) was a confidence booster for the side."
The Kiwi thought the tournament is wide open at this stage.
"It's an exciting tournament. Pretty much every team still has a chance, so we need to keep winning."
Rajasthan captain Rahul Dravid said his side lost the match in the last five overs, during whcih they conceded over 80 runs.
"The last five overs made the difference. Dilshan and AB played really well in that period," Dravid said.
Dravid was worried about their performance at the death. "The death bowling has been an area of concern. I am hitting some good shots but its important to get the right result as well. Appanna bowled well, he had the backing of a lot of runs behind him. He spun the ball, it's good for his confidence."
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