Courtesy: BCCI/ICC
Former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) stalwart AB de Villiers has revealed the insight behind the moment in which he lifted the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy after Rajat Patidar’s team emerged victorius in the final of the T20 league's 2025 edition played in Ahmedabad on June 3. de Villiers, who served RCB from 2011 to 2021 in the cash-rich league, recorded his presence in the final played at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium. He was accompanied by West Indies legend Chris Gayle, who was a member of Challengers from 2011 to 2017. Following Bengaluru’s title win, both de Villiers and Gayle posed with the prestigious trophy alongside Virat Kohli and the rest of RCB's current players.
A couple of weeks after the famous triumph, de Villiers revealed that he was reluctant to touch the trophy, but Virat Kohli insisted him to lift it. "I was hesitant to lift the IPL Trophy because I didn't really play this season, Am I really part of this? But Virat Kohli told me touch the Trophy and you lift the trophy with me," said the former South Africa skipper.
AB de Villiers’ epic stint with RCB in IPL
AB de Villiers played for RCB for 10 years and during his stint, he scored 4522 runs with two tons and 37 fifties in 145 innings of 157 Tests. In 2016, when Bengaluru ended their journey as runners-up, the star batter ended up as the third-leading run-getter with 687 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 168.79.
He, along with Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, was known as RCB’s formidable trio. In 2016, he stitched IPL’s most successful partnership for the second with Kohli. Both stitched a 229-run stand against Gujarat Lions at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on May 14, 2016. In November 2021, de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of the sport and left his fans emotional.
