Bangalore batsman Mandeep Singh lauds De Villiers for his 39-ball unbeaten 90 in team's six-wicket win over delhi on Saturday
Bangalore's Mandeep Singh (left) and AB de Villiers share a light moment after their team's win over Delhi in an T20 2018 match on Saturday.Pic/AFP
Having contributed an unbeaten nine-ball 17 to Bangalore 's winning cause against the Delhi Delhi here on Saturday, Mandeep Singh was presumably relaxing in the home dressing room when the T20 2018 media manager dragged him over to the press conference room.
ADVERTISEMENT
With a look that said 'what am I doing here', Mandeep sat down in front of an equally bewildered media. But then it dawned, didn't this young man have the best 'seat' in the house as that man AB de Villiers went about displaying his magic? He did, and this is what he had to say about the way the South African went about his business which gave thousands in the Chinnaswamy Stadium some really great pleasure on Saturday.
"What should I say about AB? I just feel lucky and blessed to be playing alongside him and witnessing one of his best innings. He keeps doing such stuff every third or fourth day. When he is batting at the other end, it makes our jobs easier as we know how much capability he has. Honestly, when I bat with him, I just try to rotate the strike and just give it to him," said Mandeep of De Villiers' 39-ball 90 that fashioned Bangalore 's six-wicket chase down of Delhi's stiff 174.
As for the man himself, he typically played down the effort. "To be honest, I didn't decide it [to play aggressively]," De Villiers said in an interview. "I wanted to put the spinners under pressure because there was a bit of turn with the new ball. I didn't want to get out in a soft way, I just wanted to try and transfer a little bit of pressure.
"From there it just kept going, I kept feeling good at the wicket, kept seeing the ball, kept hitting it well and never decided to be aggressive. Just those little moments in the game that I felt I needed to capitalise on," he added.
Catch up on all the latest T20 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!
