Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers voiced his annoyance with the IPL commentators, attacking them for their “lazy and negative remarks” about Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s bowlers. During the recent league match of the 18th season, in which RCB played the Lucknow Super Giants, he pointed out their obsession with a certain narrative. Although he avoided naming anyone specifically, De Villiers said that the remarks during the RCB versus LSG game in Lucknow made him “so angry”.
RCB won in only 18.4 overs by six wickets in an exciting, high-scoring game played at the Ekana Stadium, chasing down the remarkable goal of 228 runs set by LSG. RCB reached a major milestone with this victory as they qualified for a top-two finish for the first time since 2016. As a result, this victory also guaranteed RCB a spot in Qualifier 1 against the Punjab Kings, therefore giving them two chances to get to the final.
Taking the chance to criticize the analysts for their unjustified negative remarks about the RCB bowlers during LSG’s innings, De Villiers stressed they didn’t take into account the actual playing conditions.
“I listened to the commentators last night, and honestly, it got me so angry,” said de Villiers on his YouTube channel. “They were so negative when we were bowling. They kept saying, ‘RCB’s bowling is under pressure. They don’t look like they’re going to manage it. Once again, an in-form team is starting to lose momentum.’ But what about this- maybe it was just a really good batting wicket, guys? To all you very clever and sharp commentators out there, how about considering the possibility that it was an excellent surface for batting?”
Virat Kohli’s close friend, AB de Villiers, played for RCB over 11 seasons from 2011 to 2021 and scored 5422 runs with a remarkable strike rate of 158.33. He noted that the commentators frequently become too fixated on one story.
