Hasn't played too much cricket, just coming off an injury; all the pressure on him to score, with Chris Gayle dropped and Virat Kohli injured – now, that might faze a human being from earth. But then, as we all know, AB De Villiers ain't from this planet is he.
Playing in his first game of IPL 2017, De Villiers showed why he is known as the "Superman", playing a stupendous knock – actually, it isn't stupendous or any of the other adjectives, because this is what we have come to expect now from the great man – on a surface that wasn't easy for the batsmen to just go slam-bang at will.
With RCB in big trouble, as three wickets fell in the Powerplay, De Villiers played the waiting game for the longest time, before unleashing his power, panache and timing to such great effect that the entire Indore crowd, supposedly the home supporters for the Kings XI Punjab, were chanting "ABD, ABD, ABD" in unison.
Such is the effect of the great man. No matter where he plays, which team he plays for, he gets the crowd on his side by giving them entertainment of the highest quality.
And entertain them he certainly did at the Holkar Stadium.
At the ground where Virender Sehwag famously hit his double century, De Villiers, with the India legend watching on from the opposition dugout, unleashed a torrent of sixes of such brilliance, that you wouldn't have been surprised if the Kings XI Punjab players started applauding.
The ease with which De Villiers changes gears is hard to fathom and definitely not human.
At the end of 16 overs, De Villiers was on 38 from 30 balls – pretty good, but nothing near the ridiculous levels.
After over number 19, De Villiers was on 76 from 42 balls – so that was 38 runs from 12 balls from the great man, which included five sixes and a four.
And the ease with which he hit those sixes – one of which went out of the stadium – defied belief. And just in case you still weren't convinced he wasn't human, De Villiers unleashed two more sixes in the final over, with the second of them, off the last ball of the innings, flying out of the stadium, again.
Thanks to all that carnage, De Villiers finished unbeaten on 89 (46b, 3x4, 9x6), with RCB managing 148/4 in their 20 overs.
Just to put it into perspective on how different a zone De Villiers was on in this match compared to his teammates – De Villiers struck at a strike rate of 193.74, while the rest of the RCB batsmen had a combined strike rate of 74.32.
Told you, he isn't human.
