AB de Villiers sprung to the defence of his Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli when asked to explain the inclusion of as many as three seamers on a track that nearly spun from Ball One in the IPL-12 opener at Chennai.

"We had a good, balanced team," said De Villiers. "Look MS [Dhoni] and the Chennai team had a lot of all-rounders, lot of bowling options. That does not happen with many teams around the world. I don't think he [Dhoni] was 100 per cent sure - he had seamers but also had spin back-up.