AB de Villiers smashes unbeaten 88 on T20 Blast debut

Former South Africa batsman AB de Villiers made a sizzling start to his 2019 T20 Blast campaign, smashing an unbeaten 88 to help Middlesex beat Essex by 7 wickets on Thursday.

In the South Group fixture at Lord’s, Essex scored 164/6 in 20 overs after being put in to bat first. Ryan ten Doeschate scored an impressive 74, alongside Tom Westley’s quickfire 40 that held the middle order together. But Essex were dented by the loss of wickets at regular intervals, both at the top and lower-middle order. Fast bowler Tom Helm finished with figures of 3/27 for Middlesex.

Faced with a steep target of 165, opener Paul Stirling was dismissed for a paltry 10, but captain Dawid Malan got off to a solid start. His 34-ball 43 helped rebuild the Middlesex chase. Then, de Villiers then walked in and started striking the ball ferociously. H smashed 6 sixes and 5 fours en route his unbeaten half-century. The Essex bowlers were left hapless as all their plans against the extraordinary batting skills of AB failed miserably. Middlesex won by 7 wickets with 18 balls to spare.

? A debut to remember for @ABdeVilliers17 ?

A breathtaking 8️⃣8️⃣ from 4️⃣3️⃣ balls last night ??

Here are the highlights… pic.twitter.com/hh9cRCzuvy

— Middlesex Cricket (@Middlesex_CCC) July 19, 2019