Birthday special: AB de Villiers – Five mesmerising knocks by Mr 360
South Africa’s dashing batsman AB de Villiers celebrates his birthday on 17th February. He has been brilliant with the bat in his international as well as IPL career. De Villiers, also famously named Mr 360, had retired from international cricket in 2018. Rumours of him coming back have been in headlines for the last two to three years but there are no signs of that happening soon. In this article, we are going to list Top-5 knocks played by the stylish batsman in International cricket.
63 (51) vs India, World T20, 2009
In the World T20 2009, de Villiers hit 63 runs off 51 balls against India on a tough pitch for batting. His innings included 7 fours, and he helped the team to reach a modest total of 130/5 in 20 overs. The Indian team could only score 118/8 in 20 overs and lost by 12 runs. de Villiers had an important contribution through his innings to take the team to the Semi-Final of the tournament.
149 (44) vs West Indies, ODI, 2015
AB de Villiers created history in 2015 when he hit the fastest ODI century. He reached the 100 run mark in only 31 balls and broke Corey Anderson’s record (36 balls). He hit 149 runs off only 44 balls which included 9 fours and 16 sixes. Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw also scored tons for the Proteas in this ODI. South Africa posted a mammoth total of 439/2 in 50 overs, chasing which, the West Indies team lost the match by a margin of 148 runs.
162 (66) vs West Indies, World Cup 2015
De Villiers played an incredible knock of 162 runs off 66 balls against West Indies in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. He smashed 17 fours and 8 sixes in his explosive knock. South Africa put up a total of 408 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the first innings. Chasing this total, the Caribbean team were all out for 151 runs thus losing the match by 257 runs.
106* (186) vs South Africa, Test, 2008
South Africa registered a historic win against Australia in Perth Test, 2008 when they chased down a total of 414 runs in the fourth innings. This is the second-highest successful chase in Test cricket. For the Proteas, AB De Villiers and captain Graeme Smith hit wonderful centuries to take the team to a triumph. De Villiers scored 106 runs off 186 balls and was awarded player of the match.
217* (333) vs South Africa, Test, 2008
In the year 2008, the Proteas team had come to tour India for a Test series. In the second Test, India got bowled out for only 76 runs in the first innings. After this, South Africa piled on 494/7 in their first innings including a magnificent double ton from AB de Villiers. He played an unbeaten knock of 217 runs off 333 balls with the help of 17 fours and 2 sixes. The South African team won this match by an innings and 90 runs.
