AB de Villiers
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| AB de Villiers | ||||
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 South Africa |
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| Personal information | ||||
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman/wicketkeeper | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Tests | ODIs | |||
| Matches | 39 | 67 | ||
| Runs scored | 2539 | 2147 | ||
| Batting average | 40.30 | 37.66 | ||
| 100s/50s | 5/13 | 3/13 | ||
| Top score | 217* | 146 | ||
| Balls bowled | 198 | - | ||
| Wickets | 2 | - | ||
| Bowling average | 49.50 | - | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | 0 | - | ||
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | n/a | ||
| Best bowling | 2/49 | - | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 50/1 | 42/0 | ||
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984 in Pretoria) more commonly known by his initials AB plays cricket for South Africa and the Northern Titans. He also plays his club cricket for the Indian Premier League team of Delhi DareDevils.
He is a right-handed batsman, who, in a very short space of time, has accumulated many runs and scored four centuries in Tests; including centuries against England, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. He also has 4 Test 90s. He has also rapidly become a decent ODI batsmen and is currently being touted as the future of South African cricket.
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[edit] Cricket career
In his younger days he played for Carrickfergus Cricket Club in Northern Ireland as a professional. De Villiers became the second youngest and second fastest South African to reach 1000 test runs after Graeme Pollock. In his test career so far de Villiers has batted, bowled and kept wicket as well. He is a naturally born sportsman and has talents in golf (playing off scratch despite playing infrequently[1]), rugby, cricket and tennis. However, he chose to pursue a career in cricket and, after a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4.
He made his test debut as a 20 year old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made an impression opening the batting, but was dropped down the order for the second test and also handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match saving half century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final test of the series and has played the majority of his tests there. Since then he has not missed a Test match and has also batted down the order in some tests leading to speculation that he may possibly take the place of Mark Boucher as the wicket-keeper/batsman when Boucher retires. Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to seal the series, his rapid progress was halted on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings. Although he currently only holds a mediocre test record, de Villiers holds the record for scoring most Test runs without getting out for a duck.
He is used in a similar fashion to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs. He opens the batting in and the 2005 ODI tour to India represented a 'coming of age' for de Villiers as a cricketer as he scored his second ODI 50 24 October 2006 batting 5th in a partnership with Mark Boucher, playing against an impressive Sri Lankan side. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his then highest one-day score of 92 not out including 12 fours and one six from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series.
De Villiers has a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a sensational diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2005. This has also led people to further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes as he was also one of the finest fielders of his generation.
De Villiers hit his first Test century of 2008 on 11 January 2008 against West Indies, scoring 103* off just 109 balls. On 4 April 2008 he became the first South African to score a double century against India with his top score of 217*.
[edit] World Cup 2007
Coming into the 2007 Cricket World Cup he was in career best form in ODIs having hit four 50s during the South Africa vs India/Pakistan(2007) matches.
In the early stages of the tournament his form was poor with three failures including a duck against the Netherlands in a match where his team broke various records for batting. His talent was shown in a stunning 92 against Australia which was made in a high pressure situation. Indeed it was around the time de Villiers got out (run out from the boundary by Shane Watson) when South Africa lost their way and went on to lose the game.
His best innings to date in ODIs came in the Super 8 game against West Indies on 10th April. He made his maiden ODI hundred, 146 from just 130 balls including 5 sixes and 12 fours. This was despite batting with a runner for the latter stages of his innings and seemingly finding every shot painful due to a combination of cramps, heat exhaustion and dehydration. His innings consisted of a second wicket partnership of 170 with Jacques Kallis and a third wicket partnership of 70 with Herschelle Gibbs the latter of which was dominated by de Villiers batting on one leg. De Villiers innings set-up a total of 356/4 from 50 overs, a total also aided by contributions from Kallis, Gibbs and Boucher.
In the team's latest encounter against New Zealand, de Villiers was dismissed for his fourth tournament duck. However, he remains one of the leading run scorers in the competition with 315 runs from 8 innings.
[edit] Personal life
A devout Christian, he has stated that his religion is crucial to his approach to life. He has said ‘Jesus is everything in my life – he’s the man,’ and ‘My faith means more to me than playing for my country. It comes first.’ He went to Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool in Pretoria .
His mother is called Millie and his father, Abraham Benjamin, is a doctor. He has two brothers called Jan and Wessels and used to play cricket with them and Martin van Jaarsveld when he was younger. He currently lives with fellow Titans cricketer Morné Morkel.
[edit] Test Centuries
| AB de Villiers's Test Centuries | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs | Match | Against | City/Country | Venue | Year | |
| [1] | 109 | 5 | England | Centurion, South Africa | SuperSport Park | 2005 |
| [2] | 178 | 10 | West Indies | Bridgetown, Barbados | Kensington Oval | 2005 |
| [3] | 114 | 11 | West Indies | St John's, Antigua | Antigua Recreation Ground | 2005 |
| [4] | 103* | 35 | West Indies | Durban, South Africa | Sahara Stadium Kingsmead | 2008 |
| [5] | 217* | 39 | India | Ahmedabad, India | Sardar Patel Stadium | 2008 |
[edit] One Day International Centuries
| AB de Villiers's One Day International Centuries | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs | Match | Against | City/Country | Venue | Year | |
| [1] | 146 | 38 | West Indies | St George's, Grenada | Queen's Park | 2007 |
| [2] | 107 | 51 | Zimbabwe | Harare, Zimbabwe | Harare Sports Club | 2007 |
| [3] | 103* | 52 | Pakistan | Lahore, Pakistan | Gaddafi Stadium | 2007 |
[edit] References
- ^ South Africa - Players to watch. news.bbc.co.uk/sport. www.bbc.co.uk (2005-03-16). Retrieved on 2006-03-16.
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