Priceless asset for the Proteas
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ONE-DAY WORLD CUP BATTING: Matches 23, Innings 22, Not Out 3, Highest Score 162*, Runs 1207, Average 63.52, Strike-rate 117.29, 100s 4, 50s 6, Catches 12
That he is a natural sportsman is apparent from A.B. de Villiers’ batting and fielding, his fluid movements and innate elegance. Technically sound and naturally aggressive at the top or in the middle-order, keen of eye, agile behind the wickets and close to the bat, fleet-footed in the outfield, he has been a priceless asset for the Proteas. Dashing as well as reliable, in good times and in a crisis, de Villiers was a captain’s dream. His World Cup record is evidence of all these attributes.
The start, though, was not so brilliant in the 2007 World Cup against the weekenders from the Netherlands. Opening the batting with skipper Graeme Smith, de Villiers was caught behind off the second ball of the match for a duck. South Africa registered a 221-run win.
He set the record right in another stroll in Warner Park with the Scots, who raised a total of 186. Smith and de Villiers made short work of the target with a spate of boundaries, hoisting the fifty in 6.3 overs. Smith got to his half-century first, the hundred of the innings came up in 12.2 overs, and de Villiers raised his fifty in 41 balls. And then he hammered Glenn Rogers for two consecutive sixes over long-on, before holing out in the same direction. His 62 came off 45 deliveries, punctuated by 9 boundaries and the 2 sixes. The partnership was worth 134 in 15.5 overs. Smith missed his century by 9 runs, and South Africa raced to a seven-wicket win in 23.2 overs.
The Aussie run-machine churned out 377 runs for six wickets, Matthew Hayden slamming the then fastest World Cup hundred in 66 balls, and Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke losing their wickets in the nineties. All eight batsmen on show had a strike-rate of 100 or above. Smith and de Villiers made a tremendous effort against the formidable attack. De Villiers set the tone, stroking left-armer Nathan Bracken for a four and a six off consecutive deliveries in the first over. When the great Glenn McGrath came on, de Villiers hit him for three successive boundaries. This time de Villiers was first to his half-century in 47 balls. The hundred of the innings came up in 13.1 overs. Smith reached fifty from 41 deliveries. Soon de Villiers stepped on the pedal. Just as the Aussies might have been worried, and de Villiers was racing towards his hundred, came a turn in fortunes. A powerful direct hit from long-leg by Shane Watson had de Villiers run out for 92, the same unfortunate manner of dismissal and the same score as Clarke. His brilliant knock had occupied only 70 deliveries, studded with 2 sixes and 14 fours. The partnership had tallied 160 in just 21 overs and put the Proteas right on track. Soon Smith began cramping, de Villiers was back as runner, but both had to return after a while as the captain’s condition was too debilitating to continue. Then wickets began to crumble regularly, Smith was back but dismissed soon for 74, the procession continued and South Africa were bowled out for 294 in 48 overs. Watson’s throw and Smith’s cramps might have pre-empted a thriller in St. Kitts.
The pendulum swung again as de Villiers was bowled by Chaminda Vaas for another duck in the super-eight clash with Sri Lanka. But South Africa pulled off a humdinger by one wicket even as Lasith Malinga scythed through the tail with four wickets off consecutive deliveries spanning two overs.
There was a successive duck for de Villiers as the lanky Irish paceman Boyd Rankin had him caught, trying to square-cut one that bounced. An easy win was logged up, though, as expected.
Giant-killers Bangladesh upset South Africa too. Having strung together 251 for eight, the Bangladesh bowlers kept a stranglehold. Smith (12) and Jacques Kallis (32) departed after putting up an aggressive posture. At the other end of the scale, de Villiers tried to grit it out but was bowled by an armer from Abdur Razzak for 15, having been in for 39 deliveries. Wickets kept tumbling and South Africa were beaten by 67 runs.
Pitted opposite hosts West Indies, de Villiers atoned handsomely for his failures. He lost Smith early but aligned with Kallis in a huge partnership. Kallis was in a belligerent mood but de Villiers caught up with him, raising his fifty in 58 deliveries. The century partnership came in 15.4 overs. They went on merrily until Kallis was bowled for 81, the partnership worth 170 off 28.2 overs. As Herschelle Gibbs joined him, a delighted de Villiers ushered in his first hundred in One-day Internationals, having faced 114 balls. He soon strained his hamstring and Smith returned the favour by running for him. Having decided to wield the big stick while he could, de Villiers lashed out, clouting 4 sixes and 3 fours in a hurry. Now in considerable strife, Corey Collymore had him caught for 146, ending the mayhem of 130 deliveries in which he blasted 12 fours and 5 sixes. Gibbs’ contribution was 18 in a stand of 70 in 7.5 overs. South Africa went on to amass 356 for four. After a bit of rest, de Villiers was back on the field and took a fine diving catch at point. West Indies fought gamely right down the order but could not manage more than 289, having lost nine wickets. De Villiers took away the man-of-the-match prize for his heroic knock.
The Kiwis tripped the Proteas by five wickets, and astonishingly de Villiers bagged his fourth duck of the tournament. The pendulum was swinging wildly.
South Africa fought back, trouncing England by nine wickets in the last super-eight encounter. Chasing a target of 155, de Villiers was off to a blazing start. Smith joined in the boundary hitting mode and the fifty was up in 5.4 overs. The duo continued to find the pickets until de Villiers edged one to the wicketkeeper. His 42 comprised 8 boundaries spanning 35 deliveries. The opening stand had realized 85 runs in 9.5 overs overs. Smith (89 not out, 58 balls, 13 fours) and Kallis brought up victory in 19.2 overs.
The Aussies were unstoppable in the semi-final, skittling the Proteas for 149 in less than 44 overs, Andrew Hall drawing first blood with a brilliant haul of five for 18 in his 10 overs. De Villiers was third out for 15, none of their batsmen got to fifty, and they were defeated by seven wickets.
It was a strange kind of World Cup for de Villiers, being dismissed for four ducks and two 15s in 10 innings, still averaging 37.20 without a not out, and with the help of a century, a near-century, a half-century, and a near half-century. Indeed de Villiers and South Africa experienced a whole range of emotions in this tournament. The stylish strokemaker, though, entertained all the while, well illustrated by his strike-rate of 100.81 runs per hundred balls.
With Hashim Amla now in the side, de Villiers batted down the order in the 2011 World Cup, and donning the big gauntlets when required, a mark of his talent and versatility. West Indies totalled 222 and then dismissed Amla and Kallis early. De Villiers joined Smith at 20 for two, and was soon into his stride. The half-century of the stand came up in 9.1 overs. Soon, de Villiers raised his fifty at a-run-a-ball. The century stand arrived in 19.4 overs. Smith departed with the partnership worth 119 in 23.3 overs. There was still some work to do as Jean-Paul Duminy joined in. A bit of rain halted play for a few minutes, and immediately after de Villiers raised his century off 97 deliveries, the quickest by a South African in the World Cup, and a successive one against the West Indies in the premier event. They brought up victory in 42.5 overs, de Villiers unbeaten on 107, having faced 105 balls and stroked 8 fours and 2 sixes. The partnership was worth 84 off 14.2 overs. Leg-spinner Imran Tahir with his bag of four for 41 on debut, was a contender for the man-of-the-match award, but de Villiers eventually got the nod. The campaign had begun on the right note.
Morne van Wyk was given the responsibility behind the sticks in the workout versus the Dutch, leaving de Villiers free to concentrate on his run-getting. And he did get the runs in glorious fashion after Smith and Kallis had departed just after the fifty had been posted. Amla was now de Villiers’ associate in a huge partnership. After a bit of a look-in, de Villiers was off the blocks. He brought up his fifty off 47 balls, as the pair cruised. The hundred of the stand came up in 16.1 overs. Amla sailed to his ton in 121 deliveries. They raised the tempo, de Villiers knocking up the fastest hundred by a South African in the World Cup, off 88 balls. He was now in overdrive, logging up the double-century partnership in 28 overs. Ryan ten Doeschate had Amla caught at point for 113, scored off 130 deliveries containing 8 fours. The stand was worth 221 in 29.2 overs. A cricketing cliché showed up once again as de Villiers was run out in the next over. Both partners were dismissed in quick succession after a big stand. His superb 134 spanned just 98 deliveries and was embellished with 13 glorious hits to the boundary and 4 sailing high above it. The later batsmen too enjoyed themselves and South Africa ended up with 351 for five. Holland were bowled out for 120. It was a successive hundred as well as man-of-the-match prize for de Villiers in their first two matches of this tournament.
A low-scoring thriller at Chepauk went England’s way by just 6 runs. Tahir (four for 38) and Robin Peterson (three for 22) spun out the English for 171 in 45.4 overs. South Africa began well, Amla and Smith raising 63 in 14.1 overs. Then the wheels began to come off with three wickets gone in just about 5 overs. De Villiers and Faf du Plessis gritted it out, adding 42 runs in 12.2 overs but England began striking back. Shouldering arms to James Anderson, de Villiers found to his dismay that the ball had grazed his off-stump. In an innings of 25 completely out of character, de Villiers had not hit a single boundary in a stay off 44 balls. Two more wickets fell at the same score, another after 3 runs. Van Wyk and Dale Steyn raised hopes only to be dashed as the last three wickets crashed for 5 runs.
Another nerve-wracking encounter took place with hosts India, but this time it was a high-scoring one that South Africa managed to pull off with just 2 balls to go. India were propelled by Sachin Tendulkar’s 99th international hundred, but Steyn pulled it back for South Africa with a five-wicket haul. With the asking-rate hovering around 7.5 runs per over, de Villiers joined forces with Kallis at 127 for two. When Kallis was run out for 69 with the score reading 173 for three, the required-rate had climbed close to 9. Joined by Duminy, the boundaries started flowing. A hard sweep by de Villiers finished in the hands of square-leg. His 52 had come off 39 deliveries, and he had struck 6 fours and a six. Virtually every batsman contributed to the cause, South Africa managing to scrape through just in time with three wickets to spare.
Having been rested in the last two league games with Ireland and Bangladesh, de Villiers was back in the quarter-final face-off with New Zealand, and with the wicketkeeping gloves too. The Kiwis posted 221 for eight. After the early loss of Amla, Smith and Kallis put on 61 runs. Then the Jacob Oram magic started taking effect with the scalp of Smith. Things seemed on course with Kallis and de Villiers in charge but a brillant catch on the mid-wicket boundary by Oram sent Kallis on his way. Duminy did not last long, but another run out of de Villiers two balls later was a huge blow. The sight of de Villiers sprawled on the turf as he dived desperately for the crease might have been symbolic of what lay in store for his team. His 40-ball 35 was studded with 4 fours. Oram went on to bag four for 39, and South Africa crashed out, beaten by 49 runs.
It was a superb tournament for de Villiers, having scored 353 runs in 5 matches with an average of 88.25. A strike-rate of 108.28 and 2 hundreds and a fifty were proof of his brilliant form. Unfortunately, his team had faltered once again in the final stages of a World Cup.
The opening encounter in 2015 did not stretch the Proteas much. Zimbabwe did grab a few early wickets, de Villiers at no. 4. and at the helm, falling for 25 off 36 deliveries. A huge unbroken partnership of 256 runs in 29.4 overs between David Miller and Jean-Paul Duminy carried South Africa to 339 for four. It was a record for the fifth wicket in the World Cup and in all One-Day Internationals. It was also South Africa’s highest partnership for any wicket. The Zimbabwe top-order battled hard but could only progress till 277.
India put up a challenging 307 for seven. Along with Faf du Plessis, de Villiers put on 68 in 12.3 overs. He was unfortunately run out for 30 off 38 deliveries. His side could not recover from this blow, losing wickets regularly, and folding up for 177.
After this reverse, South Africa needed to get their act together. They, and de Villiers, did and how! After Amla and du Plessis put on 127 runs for the second wicket in 23.4 overs, de Villiers was in irresistible form as the hapless West Indies looked on. He dashed to his fifty off 30 deliveries. His century off 52 balls was the second fastest in the World Cup after Irishman Kevin O’Brien’s ton from 50 deliveries in 2011. A few days later Australia’s Glenn Maxwell crashed a 51-ball hundred. De Villiers’ 150 in 64 deliveries was the fastest in the World Cup and One-day Internationals. He now had to his credit the fastest 50, 100 and 150 in One-day Internationals. In his blistering innings of 149 (44 balls, 16 sixes, 9 fours) against the West Indies at Johannesburg in January 2015, he blasted his fifty in a mere 16 deliveries and hundred off 31 balls. Having hammered 116 runs in boundaries (8 sixes and 17 fours), de Villiers was third in the list in the World Cup after Martin Guptill and Chris Gayle. Later Eoin Morgan hit 118 in 2019. There were no dot balls in South Africa’s batting powerplay from the 36th to the 40th over, with Rilee Rossouw and de Villiers hitting 72 runs without being separated. The fourth-wicket partnership of 134 between Rossouw and de Villiers came in only 12.3 overs. The unfinished sixth-wicket partnership of 80 between de Villiers and Farhaan Behardien came off just 3.2 overs. De Villiers blasted 68 of those.
West Indies skipper Jason Holder gave away 34 runs in an over (including two no-balls), which is the most after Holland’s Daan van Bunge who was hit for 6 sixes by the South African Herschelle Gibbs in 2007. All the runs off the bat in this Holder over were smashed by de Villiers. In another over, de Villiers hit Holder for 30 runs. De Villiers’ unbeaten 162 was the second-highest score for South Africa after Gary Kirsten’s 188 not out against United Arab Republic at Rawalpindi in 1996. The South African total of 408 for five was their best in the World Cup, and the highest by any team in One-day Internationals in Australia, until they logged up 411 for four in their very next match versus Ireland, and then hosts Australia piled up 417 for six off the Afghanistan bowling. Shell-shocked by this hammering, West Indies collapsed to 151 all out. South Africa’s winning margin of 257 runs was the joint highest in the World Cup until Australia defeated Afghanistan by 275 runs later. There was no other claimant to the man-of-the-match prize.
There was another massive second-wicket partnership of 247 runs in 36.1 overs between Amla and du Plessis off the Irish. Capitalising on it, de Villiers struck 24 off 9 deliveries with 2 sixes and a four, being caught at backward-point trying to reverse sweep. This time South Africa hoisted 411 for four. It was now a matter of playing out the 50 overs for Ireland. They lasted 45, putting together 210 runs.
In a match truncated by the weather, Pakistan were bowled out for 222 in 46.4 overs, two deliveries short of their allocated quota. According to the Duckworth-Lewis method, South Africa required 232 from 47 overs. De Villiers came in at 67 for three after 10.1 overs. He was at his belligerent best as wickets fell around him. He raised his half-century off 45 deliveries, and continued his carnage. With eight wickets already down for 200, it was up to de Villiers to drive his side home. He launched into a short one but could only nick it to the wicketkeeper. His 77 came off 58 balls, studded with 5 sixes and 7 fours. South Africa were bowled out for 202 in 33.3 overs.
After this reverse, it was a more relaxed outing with United Arab Emirates. Back at no. 4, his boundaries were interspersed with singles. He raised his fifty off 54 balls as he settled into a fourth-wicket stand of 108 runs with David Miller in 17.5 overs. De Villiers then changed gears with a flurry of sixes and fours. One short of his century, he slashed at one, to be taken at short third-man. His 4 sixes took his tally to 20 in the tournament at that stage, the most in any World Cup, leaping ahead of the Matthew Hayden, who had smashed 18 sixes in the 2007 event, while Chris Gayle had tonked 18 sixers till then in this 2015 competition. De Villiers, with 36 sixes, had the maximum in all World Cup tournaments, leaving behind Ricky Ponting who had hit 31. He hit 6 fours besides in his 82-ball knock. South Africa racked up 341 for six. UAE could manage just 195.
In the quarter-final, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 133. South Africa cruised to a nine-wicket win.
In contrast, the semi-final was an edge-of-the-seat thriller, disrupted by the weather and going down to the penultimate delivery. The fourth-wicket partnership of 103 in 12.1 overs between du Plessis (82 runs, 107 balls, 1 six, 7 fours) and de Villiers, and the pyrotechnics of David Miller (49 runs, 18 balls, 3 sixes, 6 fours) at the end took South Africa to 281 for five in their 43 overs. De Villiers again fired on all cylinders racing to his fifty off 32 deliveries. He was unbeaten on 65 from 45 balls. The crucial encounter was balanced on a razor’s edge right through the Kiwi innings. There were 12 runs required off the last over with the ball in the hands of the great Dale Steyn, then five runs off two balls. Steyn bowled full, and Grant Elliott swung. The ball sailed over long-on for a six. New Zealand advanced jubilantly to the final with one delivery to spare. It was heart-break for South Africa yet again.
It was once more a brilliant World Cup for de Villiers, 482 runs in 7 innings at an average of 96.40, and a strike-rate of 144 with a century and 3 fifties. His aggregate was second-highest for South Africa in a World Cup just behind Jacques Kallis’ tally of 485 in 2007.
There are stories often circulating about de Villiers being champion at many sports. He clarified to The Indian Express: “Some of them are true, while others are not. I have played almost all sports growing up, but was not as good as mentioned. Like in the case of badminton, it is claimed that I was U-19 national champion. That is not true. Tennis was one of my strongest suits. Also rugby. But slowly, as the years went by, my priority became cricket.”
South Africa could not ask for more of de Villiers in the showpiece event. A tally of more than 1200 runs, average above 60, strike-rate close to 120, 4 hundreds, 6 fifties, versatile with the bat and in the field. In the elite list of 21 batsmen who have scored 1,000 runs, de Villiers has the best average as well as strike-rate, in fact the only one among them to strike at above 100. He has the second-highest number of sixes in the premier event, 37 to Gayle’s 49; and the third-highest sixes in a World Cup, 21 in 2015 to Gayle’s 26 in the same event, and Eoin Morgan’s 22 in 2019. Bowing out in endearing, spectacular fashion, de Villiers reserved a permanent place in the pantheon of the greats, one of the most scintillating strikers of the ball.
(Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s forthcoming book ‘World Cup Odyssey’).
