Five Most Memorable Knocks From Birthday Boy AB de Villiers

The batting sensation AB de Villiers is celebrating his 36th birthday today. De Villiers is one of the legends of the game of cricket and being such a giant figure in world cricket. He is one of the humblest too. De Villiers is one such cricketer who has his fans all across the globe and his career has been nothing short of remarkable results.

The Proteas legend retired from international cricket in 2018 which broke the hearts of cricket fans across the globe. But, glimpses of his potential can be seen when he plays T20 franchise cricket in different countries.

AB is simply one of the best players to have graced the field of cricket and some qualities that he possesses make him a class apart from others.

Mr 360 is known for his unique batting style as he is capable of hitting balls in all the corners of the ground. Apart from it, it is his flamboyant power-hitting ability that sets him apart from the crowd.

The world of cricket hasn’t seen a better innovative player than de Villiers and sometimes his shots make even legends go crazy.

On his birthday, let’s take a look at five of his most memorable innings in world cricket.

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AB de Villiers’ Five Memorable Knocks:

1. 149 v West Indies in Johannesburg, 2015 – 2nd ODI

This is indeed one of the greatest innings in the history of cricket. De Villiers smashed every ODI record during the innings blasting 149 off just 44 balls. He smashed the West Indies bowling attack all over the Wanderers.

Having brought up his half-century off just 16 deliveries, de Villiers completed his century in a meagre 31 balls. He remains the fastest cricketer to smash an ODI hundred in the history of ODI cricket.

The 16 sixes he hit that day are also the most-ever hit by a batsman in an ODI inning.

That day, De Villiers shocked the world of cricket with his unbelievable shot-making abilities. It didn’t matter where the ball was bowled, De Villiers found a way to clear the ropes. When he was in that scintillating form, there was nobody better.

2. 278* v Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, 2010 – 2nd Test

This did not go down as a match-winning knock from De Villiers as the game ended in a draw. But, this doesn’t diminish the value of his innings as he came in at a crucial point in the Proteas innings.

The South Africans were struggling at 33/3 in the first innings. He came, he saw and he conquered. De Villiers batted for 10 hours. By the time he was done, De Villiers had scored 278* as the Proteas declared on 584/9.

Although Jacques Kallis’ contribution in that innings can’t be neglected, it was De Villiers who held the innings together.

With that monster of an innings, de Villiers set a new record for the highest score by a South African in Test cricket, going past the 277-run mark, set previously by Graeme Smith.

The record now belongs to Hashim Amla, who scored 311* against England in 2012.

3. 162 vs West Indies, World Cup match, Sydney, 2015

Poor West Indies. After being destroyed by de Villiers a mere forty days previous, the South African was at it again during the 2015 World Cup in Sydney as he helped his side to a crushing 257-run victory over Jason Holder’s side in Group B.

With South Africa 146/3 in the 30th over, and despite feeling flat by his own admission, De Villiers teed off reaching his 50 in 30 balls. He only needed another 22 deliveries to reach another destructive hundred.

To round it all off, he faced the next 14 deliveries to amass unbelievable 57.

4. 33 off 220 balls vs Australia, Second Test, Adelaide, 2012

The cricketing world has always seen the destructive De Villiers. Showing both sides to him, De Villiers played one of the slowest innings of Test cricket and showed how capable and mature enough a player he is during the second Test against Australia in 2012.

Chasing 430, and standing on the brink of defeat when resuming on the final day at 77-4, De Villiers set aside his destructive capabilities by batting for 246 minutes to a 220-ball score of 33, devoid of a single boundary.

In helping his side survive and secure a draw, de Villiers was at his stubborn, defensive best.

It showed that, for all of his shot-making ability, he could also do a selfless job for his team under extreme pressure. He shared a stand of 89 over 67 overs on the final day with Faf du Plessis, who scored a brilliant hundred.

This innings went on to become one of the best innings of his Test career and although people might not see this as a huge achievement, the Proteas know how difficult it was to withstand the Australians at their prime.

5. 129* vs Gujarat Lions at Chinnaswamy in IPL, 2016

On this day, in the Chinnaswamy Stadium, AB de Villiers showed the world of what he is capable of. He made batting look ridiculously easy and left the Gujarat bowlers clueless.

Batting first, RCB put up a giant total of 248 runs on the scoreboard with the help of centuries from de Villiers and Virat Kohli. De Villiers made an unbeaten 129 off just 52 balls. His innings was decorated with 10 fours and 12 huge sixes. During his innings, he literally set Chinnaswamy stadium on fire with his clean power-hitting.

For most of the RCB innings, de Villiers took the centre stage and Kohli supported him. As a result of such batting carnage, RCB won the match by a huge margin of 144 runs.

De Villiers was given the Man of the Match award for his magical innings.

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