Former South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers, who spent 11 seasons at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), revealed the reason why he loved batting with India great Virat Kohli.With Virat Kohli, AB has posted five 100+ partnerships for RCB and two 200+ partnerships, the only pair in the world to post two such partnerships.The 229-run stand between De Villiers and Kohli for the second wicket in 2016 versus Gujarat Lions at the Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru is still the highest partnership in IPL history. Interestingly, a year ago in 2015, the duo had put on an unbeaten 215-run partnership against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.In the podcast, Beard Before Wicket, host Nubaid Haroon compared the duo to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, whereas Adil Rashid, England leg-spinner, compared Kohli and De Villiers with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) legends Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.“We played the game in a similar way. We are very busy at the crease, run hard, really look to get behind what the bowlers are trying to do, and find a way to attack the bowlers,” said AB de Villiers on batting with Kohli.“There were two partnerships with him, one at the Wankhede and one at the Chinnaswamy, both were day games.
Poll
Which partnership do you think was more impressive?
“Both of us were in the form of our lives. That always helps. I just love batting with him. He is very competitive like me, and we love taking bowlers down.“It was nice to have that experience with him in front of a loud crowd, it was incredible.”
