IPL 2020, RCB vs SRH: AB de Villiers joins Virat Kohli, David Warner in elite T20 record

AB de Villiers completed 9,000 T20 runs during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday.

De Villiers, who was four runs away from the milestone, scored a run-a-ball 24 in the first innings and RCB posted 120 for 7 in 20 overs. The 36-year-old is the only eighth batsman to score 9,000 or more runs in the shortest format and he now has 9,020 runs in 304 innings, including 66 fifties and four centuries.

The other batsmen to have scored 9,000 or more T20 runs are Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Shoaib Malik, Brendon McCullum, David Warner, Virat Kohli, and Aaron Finch. With over 13,000 runs, Gayle is the record-holder of most runs in the T20s ahead of fellow West Indian Pollard, who has scored 10,425 runs. Pakistan all-rounder Mailk is the only cricket from Asia to have scored 10,000+ runs in the T20s, having amassed 10,145 runs since his debut in 2005. With 9,324 runs, Kohli is the only Indian to have scored 9,000 or more runs, while Rohit Sharma is not far behind at 8,902 runs.

Gayle, who holds the majority of T20 records, recently became the first-ever batsman to hit 1,000 sixes in T20s. The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) hitter reached the milestone during his knock of 99 from 63 balls in his side's seven-wicket loss to Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Friday.

With only Mumbai Indians (MI) qualified for the playoffs in the ongoing IPL 2020, the fight for the remaining three slots is underway. After Delhi Capitals' loss to MI in the first match of Saturday's doubleheader, RCB will be confirmed a place in the playoffs if they manage to defeat SRH in the ongoing encounter in Sharjah. DC have 14 points in 13 games, while RCB have the same points, but in 12 games. Meanwhile, SRH have 10 points in 12 matches and fourth-placed KXIP have 12 points in 13 matches.

After losing the toss on Saturday, Kohli said," We wanted to bat first to be honest. It's pretty dry. We think it'll get slower and slower as the game progresses. Pretty happy to be batting first. Navdeep's back for Dube, Udana replaces Steyn from the last game. It was a strange phase of batting out there (against MI), whatever we hit went to hand. Usually, it doesn't happen with our batting line-up, but these things happen on the field. Even then, we put up a good fight to defend 165. We are not too far away from having that professional performance that we have put in a number of times in this tournament."