Asked about the prospects of taking on Jasprit Bumrah, the world's best death bowler in white-ball cricket, De Villiers didn't appear to be too concerned
AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers sprung to the defence of his Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli when asked to explain the inclusion of as many as three seamers on a track that nearly spun from Ball One in the IPL-12 opener at Chennai.
"We had a good, balanced team," said De Villiers. "Look MS [Dhoni] and the Chennai team had a lot of all-rounders, lot of bowling options. That does not happen with many teams around the world. I don't think he [Dhoni] was 100 per cent sure - he had seamers but also had spin back-up.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We didn't have that luxury, but I thought we had a fantastically balanced team that can play cricket on any wicket in the world. Obviously, looking back after the ball turned two metres, you want to play on a different wicket but no one was expecting it," said the South African at a media interaction here ahead of tonight's big clash against Mumbai Indians. He was of course expecting a better track at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where MI, incidentally have won seven of their nine games against RCB.
Asked about the prospects of taking on Jasprit Bumrah, the world's best death bowler in white-ball cricket, De Villiers didn't appear to be too concerned. "No one is perfect and yes, Bumrah is a very good bowler but he is also not supposed to get it right all the time," he said.
His erstwhile South African colleague, MI's Quinton de Kock had a different view. "He's not one of the best death bowlers for no reason," said De Kock of Bumrah before moving on to the game on hand. "Any big tournament around the world, any sports tournament, everybody wants to get off to a good start. We need to get going with a win and hopefully, build some momentum on top of that and get things rolling for our campaign this year," he added.
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
