AB DE VILLIERS

AB DE VILLIERS

Abraham Benjamin "AB" de Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a South African cricketer who captains the South AfricanTest^[1] and One Day International (ODI) teams, and is regarded as one of the best batsman in the world at present and also one of the best of all time.^[2] He holds many batting records, such as the fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODI cricket, the fastest Test century by a South African and the fastest T20I 50 by a South African.^[3] He made his international debut in a Test matchagainst England in 2004 and first played an ODI in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. As of 2016, he has passed 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and has a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game. He began his career as a wicketkeeper-batsman, but later played most often purely as a batsman. He has batted at various positions up and down the order.

Early life

De Villiers was born in Warmbad,^[4] and enjoyed what he later described as the "really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone".^[5] He went to high school in Pretoria but returned home for weekends. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sport; as a child, De Villiers played cricket at his home. He was particularly successful in golf, tennis and rugby union, but settled on a career in cricket by the age of 18.^[5]

Career

De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who has accumulated many runs in Tests including 21 centuries and 36 fifties. He holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78),^[6] before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278*. Until 2012, he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although since the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucherand under his own ODI captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, but then decided to give up wicketkeeping after the debut of Quinton de Kock, and started becoming a part-time bowler.^{[citation needed]}

He holds the records for the fastest 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls) of all time in One Day Internationals by any batsmen, and also holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by South African in T20Is. He is the three time ICC ODI player of the year having won the award in 2010, 2014 & 2015.

He succeeded Graeme Smith after the 2011 Cricket World Cup for the ODI captaincy and Hashim Amla after the Second Test of the England in South Africa series for the Test captaincy.

International career

De Villiers in 2006

De Villiers became the second youngest and second fastest South African to reach 1000 test runs after Graeme Pollock and in his test career so far has batted, bowled and kept wicket as well. Even though he has excelled in other sports, 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 also played for Carrickfergus Cricket Club in Northern Ireland as their overseas player in 2004.

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.

Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a test series win, 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.

He has been used in a similar fashion to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs, opening the innings, although he currently bats in the middle order. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his then highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 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 diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2006, when he dived to stop the ball, and while still lying on his stomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder and effected a direct hit. This has also led people to make further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes as he was also one of the finest fielders of his generation.

In 2009, he was nominated for ICC Cricketer of the year and ICC Test Player of the year.

On 6 June 2011, then S.A. coach Gary Kirsten announced that AB de Villiers will be South Africa's new limited-overs captain, at a news conference. "I'm very excited but I'm also inexperienced. But I've learnt a lot the last seven years from an unbelievable captain," said De Villiers, who has never captained a team at first-class level. "It's a big responsibility, but there'll be a fresh look in the side, which is good."

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