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Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their playoff hopes alive as Sunrisers Hyderabad's skipper Kane Williamson (81 off 42) and Manish Pandey's (62 not out off 38) brilliant knock in a crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Thursday.
De Villiers then got into the act for RCB, hitting some exquisite boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan and Sandeep before Rashid cleaned up skipper Virat Kohli (12) with a googly in the fifth over.
Brought into the attack in the eighth over, Basil Thampi leaked runs as Ali smashed consecutive sixes off the pacer - first over mid-off and then over square-leg boundary - to give momentum to RCB's innings.De Villiers brought up his fifty off 32 balls with two consecutive boundaries off Kaul (2/44) in the 12th over.
De Villiers hit the ball for a big shot but caught by Shikhar Dhawan at deep square leg while Ali reverse-paddled a delivery to Goswami behind the stumps.
Thereafter, Colin de Grandhomme used his brute power to score 40 runs off just 17 balls while Sarfaraz Khan remained unbeaten on 22 off 8 balls to provide the late impetus to RCB's innings.
It turned out to be a forgettable day for Thampi as he conceded the most runs by a bowler in an innings in the history of IPL. He leaked 70 runs from his four overs.
