Chin music: AB de Villiers takes down Gujarat Lions, then gets knocked down by Chahal celebrations

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pulled off a sensational four-wicket win over the Gujarat Lions on Tuesday, confirming their place in the IPL 2016 final. But it was very nearly not to be. In fact, for about 15 out of 20 overs of their run chase, RCB were tottering about, unable to either preserve their wickets or accelerate the scoring. And then, along came AB de Villiers. [caption id=“attachment_2798040” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chahal thundered into ABD with all the impact of a train and knocked his helmet back. PTI[/caption] He ensured the required rate stayed within touching distance (Not saying much, considering most things in the world are within touching distance for ABD). He kept hitting the big shots, kept running between the wickets like a man possessed, and kept RCB in the hunt. And soon enough, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, ABD had almost single-handedly ensured Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match. This sparked off much fist pumping and jubilation. Considering the team had almost no chance of winning just a few overs earlier, some of the players got a bit excited. Or, in the case of Yuzvendra Chahal, a little too excited. The young leg-spinner, who became the top wicket taker in the tournament just a few hours earlier, clearly doesn’t believe in holding oneself back. With a swagger befitting a man with a shiny new Purple Cap, he jumped on top of de Villiers, in an attempt to shower the South African with his adulation. And de Villiers, who had just played a long and arduous innings, really wasn’t in a position to ask Chahal to go easy. With the result that his helmet, which had protected him from the menacing Gujarat Lions’ fast bowlers, was no longer able to keep his  wiry teammate away. Chahal thundered into ABD with all the impact of a train and knocked his helmet back. The ensuing knock gave de Villiers a gash on the chin and he showed up at the post-match presentation ceremonies wearing blood. But while ABD took it on the chin, Chahal took to Twitter to express his apologies.

I'm really sorry bro @ABdeVilliers17 but thank for tonight #loveyou and not least @iqqiabdullah well done 🤗🤗 pic.twitter.com/NyERP4xO6z

— Yuzvendra Chahal (@yuzi_chahal) May 24, 2016

The injury doesn’t look very nasty though, and seems unlikely that it will keep de Villiers away from cricketing action for too long. In fact, it might just fire him up even more. If a happy de Villiers is capable of carnage like this, imagine what an angry de Villiers would do.