AB de Villiers heaps praise on 'special' Virat Kohli

  New Delhi: Although AB de Villiers himself is among the best modern era batsmen with former and current players expressing their astonishment at the South African’s ability to play shots all around the ground, he has admitted to be in awe of his captain at Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli. Kohli is going through best phase of his cricket career. And de Villiers feels Kohli has the ‘special ability’ of finding the gaps in the field. “I have watched him closely during the past few weeks, often from the non-striker’s end, and I have marvelled at his confidence, his special ability to hit the ball into gaps in the field and his talent for pacing an innings to perfection,” AB de Villiers said about Kohli in an interview with Caravan magazine. “In the early stages, he was not afraid to play defensively against any good ball and he was not flustered as the required run-rate started to rise because he knew that, when it mattered, he would hit the boundaries and the sixes that would take us to our target of 192 in 20 overs.” “With him and KL Rahul opening our innings, we scored only 10 runs from the first three overs but there was no panic. In the fourth over, after Rahul had scored a six from the second ball, Virat faced the fourth ball, stepped away to leg and simply lifted the ball over the boundary at extra cover. The 33-year old South African ODI and Test skipper also said that Kohli is impossible to stop when he is at the peak of his innings. “It was an exquisite stroke, performed by a player full of confidence and operating at the peak of his powers.” “He took two boundaries in the ninth over, one driven through cover and one whipped to midwicket, and two more from Bhatia in the 11th, another driven past cover and another flicked into the leg-side. “He was content to take singles and twos while Shane Watson was thriving, but Virat’s cultured assault resumed when he hit two 6s and a boundary in the 18th over.After two more sixes in the 19th, he hit the winning boundary off the third ball of the last over, finishing unbeaten on 108 from 58 balls.” “Virat Kohli is pure class, world class.”