M58: RCB vs RR – Man of the Match – AB de Villiers 3:48 14,470 Views “What would life be without having a good influence on other people?”AB de Villiers would not know. For there are very few places or teams, if any, where the impact of his presence is anything but positive. Whether it is mesmerizing the spectators with his insanely incredible skills on the cricket field or imparting valuable cricketing wisdom to his young teammates – Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is, indeed, a class above the rest.

Ask young Mandeep Singh, de Villiers’ teammate at the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The 23-year-old batsman recently spoke about how the South African legend had helped him with his game. “AB is a great cricketer but he is a greater man”, Mandeep had said.

So, it was really a dream coming true for the Indian batsman to script a thumping win for RCB against Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator with a 113-run partnership with the man he so looks up to.They started out slowly on a wicket that gave the RR pacers assistance. But towards the end the big shots started to flow.

de Villiers scored 66 off 38 balls and Mandeep remained unbeaten on 54 (34 balls).The senior partner was adjudged the Man of the Match for his contribution to RCB’s 71-run victory. But during his post-match chat with iplt20.

com, de Villiers mentioned he was going to pass on the trophy to his young Indian mate because according to him “A lot of credit should go to Mandeep for the way he played. He helped me get a bit of momentum by my side and it paid off”.This gesture from de Villiers would be the encouragement that would motivate Mandeep to get better as a cricketer.

Here is our chat with AB de Villiers about his knock and the match-winning partnership.Are you really from this planet? How can one human being be blessed by so many incredible skills?That is very kind of you. To be very honest I didn’t play very well today.

I have to give all credit to Mandeep Singh for the way he played. It was not as fluent a knock as I wanted it to be but I guess it all comes with experience. I struggled in the first few overs but I fought it through and I was lucky to be there in the end to express myself.

It has been proved that AB batting at No. 3 is RCB’s best chance of winning.It does give me a chance to pace my innings and build it in cases like the one today.

This wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on. I wouldn’t have been able to get those shots away in the slog overs had I just come in to bat. I tried to do it earlier in my innings but I failed.

That is why I say a lot of credit should go to Mandeep. He helped me get a bit of momentum by my side and it paid off.The way the first 10 overs went, what was the target you were looking at and when did you revise it?I was looking at 140 initially.

But with that big over against the left-arm spinner (in the 15th over bowled by Ankit Sharma, de Villiers hit two sixes and a four) the momentum changed and the target shifted to 150-160. We played even better towards the end and managed to get 180.Mandeep told us a few days back of the positive impact you have had on him.

What would life be without having a good influence on other people? That is what it is all about. I am trying to make a positive influence on some young players in the team and if Mandeep says I have, it makes me a very happy man. It feels like I am achieving my goal, which ultimately is to make a positive contribution to the lives of people around me.

What impresses me the most about Mandeep is that he has a very cool head over his shoulders and he makes good decisions under pressure.Your next game is against the Chennai Super Kings in Ranchi – RCB’s brilliant chance to finally get a hand on the trophy?It is going to be a very difficult match. We know that CSK are a very good and tough team to beat.

We would love to go to Ranchi and beat them. It would be amazing if we can then go a step further and win the trophy. Right now we have to take it step by step.

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Source: http://www.iplt20.com/news/2015/features/6903/the-joy-from-the-other-end