The partnership of Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers in T20 cricket can rival the superpower of the famous comic heroes — Batman and Superman — feels Chris Gayle, the man who himself earned many a sobriquet for his marauding form in the game.
“Those two guys (Kohli and de Villiers) are playing like ‘Batman and Superman’. They are in the form of their life, especially Kohli,” Gayle said after his two colleagues fashioned a nine-wicket for Royal Challengers Bangalore over Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday.
“They should continue pressing gas and should not ease up… Fill their boots as much as possible. It is fantastic the way they are batting under pressure. Credit must go to both of them. And Kohli leading from the front is even better,” the Caribbean big-hitter said of the unbeaten 75 and 59 scored by Kohli and de Villiers. The two batsmen are also leading the charts in the current season aggregating 1349 runs from 12 matches.
Record surpassedGayle congratulated Kohli for surpassing the record of highest aggregate in a season of 733 runs, which he and Michael Hussey shared so long. “I must congratulate him on achieving such a thing in IPL so far. With two more games to go, maybe he can get close to 1000 runs. And who knows, if he can even make the play-offs,” Gayle said about Kohli, who currently aggregates 752 runs that includes three centuries and five fifties.
Gayle, who for long had monopolised the art of scoring big runs, praised Kohli for his relentless desire to excel. “Kohli’s performance is always about determination. He is a person who is never satisfied and he actually wants to better his last performance, which is good. He is not always about power-hitting, but his game is about the right timing, shot selection and fitness,” Gayle said about his captain.
Gayle, who shrugged off current poor form and laid the foundation for RCB’s win with a typically explosive 49, said a good player always needs to give a reminder to the fans about his ability. “You keep it simple as much as possible and play fearless cricket and keep stamping your authority which is very important as well. You may be a big player but sometime you need a bit of reminder as well of how good you are,” Gayle said.
“There has always been ups and downs in cricket and life as well. You just try to be reborn as quickly as possible. I am happy more for the fans today rather than Chris Gayle getting those runs,” the Caribbean star said.
Needing a win to seal a play-off berth, KKR slipped again and this was more because the Eden Gardens pitch is not assisting spinners, felt the team’s Bangladesh left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan. Out of six home matches, KKR lost three — against Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Lions and RCB — prompting the comment from Shakib.
“I can talk of myself and I would say yes, we are not getting that advantage (from the home pitch). We are a team dependent on spin, so we always expect some assistance at home. We have not been getting that till now and it is disappointing,” Shakib said looking at his other colleagues — Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla, who could not make much of an impact.
