Abraham Benjamin De Villiers
| Abraham Benjamin de Villiers, commonly known as AB (born 17 February 1984), is a South African international cricketer, who plays for Titans in South African domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. |
| Full name | Abraham Benjamin de Villiers |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 February 1984 Warmbad, Transvaal Province, South Africa |
| Nickname | ABD, Mr.360, Abbas |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Batting | Right-handed |
| Bowling | Right-arm medium |
| Role | Batsman, wicket-keeper/batsman |
Early life
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was born in Warmbad,and enjoyed what he later described as the "really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone". He went to high school in Pretoria along with teammate Faf du Plessis. They attended the prestigious Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool. AB returned home for weekends. His father was a doctor who had played rugby unionin his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sports; as a child, De Villiers played cricket at his home. His autobiography was published in September 2016. Besides cricket, De Villiers also excelled at golf, rugby and tennis in his youth. He has been involved in charity works.
Career
De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who has accumulated over 8000 runs in Tests including 21 centuries and 39 fifties. He holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78) before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman, with 278 (not out). Until 2012 he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although after the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He gave up wicket-keeping in 2015, and handed the gloves to debutant Quinton de Kock.
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 a three time ICC ODI player of the year, winning 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. He stepped down from Test captaincy in December 2016 due an elbow injury which kept him out of the team for a long period.
International career
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Early days
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 has batted, bowled and kept wicket. Even though he 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 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 Test innings 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, who was also one of the finest fielders of his generation. His fielding positions other than wicketkeepers are 1st and 2nd slip and cover.
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. "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 had 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."
Gaining attention
On 4 April 2008, he became the first South African to score a double century against India with his top score of 217*.
De Villiers scored an obdurate 174 that helped set up a ten-wicket win for South Africa in the second Test against England at Headingley Carnegie in Leeds in July 2008. This was followed by a 97 at The Oval before he came down the wicket trying to smash Monty Panesar for a boundary and was caught on the fence .
In the first Test in Perth, De Villiers scored a match-winning century to help South Africa chase down the second highest ever fourth innings target of 414 with six wickets in hand. This was South Africa's first Test victory in Australia in 15 years and appeared to go a long way towards tilting world cricket's balance of power after over a decade of Australian dominance. De Villiers also took four diving catches in the course of the match, including one to dismiss Jason Krejza, a stunner at backward point.
De Villiers only scored 11 runs though in the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and made another low score in the first innings of the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In the second innings of that Test though, De Villiers scored a patient half-century as South Africa almost held on for an against-the-odds draw.
During ODI Series, In the 4th ODI in Adelaide, he played as wicketkeeper after Boucher was ruled out. He then scored 82 not out from 85 balls with 6 fours and a six to win the series and was named the man of the match.
In the first Test of the return series at the Wanderers Stadium, De Villiers provided lone resistance in the first innings against a bowling attack led by pace bowler, Mitchell Johnson, scoring 104* off 185 balls with 9 fours and 1 six, while his teammates all fell for under 50. But in the second innings he made only 3 off 7.
In the third test, after centuries from Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis, De Villiers became the third centurion of the innings with a score of 163 off 196 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes. This knock also tied the record for most sixes in an over as De Villiers, off a McDonald over, hit four consecutive sixes.
In the following 5 game ODI series, De Villiers played consistently, although starting badly in the first game, scoring only 2 runs. However, he went on to make 36*, 80, 84, and 38 and was named Player of the Series at the conclusion of game 5.
He was rested for the two-match Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe and because Mark Boucher was injured as well Heino Kuhn donned the keeping gloves. De Villiers returned for the ODI series and also took over the gloves while Mark Boucher was recovering. He did well against Zimbabwe scoring two centuries out of the three ODIs as South Africa comfortably won the three match series 3–0.
His major challenge came against Pakistan for the two Twenty20 matches, where he kept wicket. In the first match he was out for a second-ball duck off a superb delivery by Shoaib Akhtar. In the second T20I he scored 11 runs. He then participated in the five-match ODI series where South Africa were chasing 203 to win and he scored 51 before he was caught and bowled by Saeed Ajmal. In the second ODI he scored 29 as he was bowled by Shahid Afridi; in the same match a flamboyant Abdul Razzaq played the greatest innings of his life to lift Pakistan to an unbelievable victory. During the third match he scored 19 before he was stumped by Zulqarnain Haider. It turned out to be a mistake by the umpire as he had pressed the wrong button. In the fourth match he missed out on a half-century while on 49 when he gave his wicket to the fielder at point. His good form in the series continued when he scored 61 in the final ODI as South Africa won by 57 runs and the series 3–2.
Record breaking
On 18 January 2015, De Villiers scored the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 31 balls and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls in 59 minutes against West Indies.
Test cricket
- By year
| Year | Matches | Runs | Average | 100 | 50 | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 2 | 108 | 36.00 | 0 | 1 | 52 |
| 2005 | 11 | 1,008 | 53.05 | 3 | 5 | 178 |
| 2006 | 11 | 570 | 27.14 | 0 | 4 | 97 |
| 2007 | 9 | 387 | 27.64 | 0 | 3 | 77 |
| 2008 | 15 | 1,061 | 58.94 | 4 | 2 | 217 |
| 2009 | 6 | 572 | 57.20 | 2 | 4 | 163 |
| 2010 | 11 | 996 | 76.62 | 3 | 4 | 278 |
| 2011 | 5 | 377 | 47.13 | 0 | 4 | 99 |
| 2012 | 10 | 815 | 58.21 | 2 | 2 | 169 |
| 2013 | 9 | 933 | 77.75 | 4 | 5 | 164 |
| 2014 | 8 | 631 | 48.54 | 2 | 2 | 152 |
| 2015 | 6 | 492 | 49.20 | 1 | 2 | 148 |
| 2016 | 3 | 124 | 24.80 | 0 | 1 | 88 |
| 2017 | 1 | 53 | 53.00 | 0 | 1 | 53 |
| 2018 | 2 | 200 | 50.00 | 0 | 2 | 80 |
IPL career
AB de Villiers is one of the most successful batsmen in the Indian Premier League. In the fourth season, he was contracted by Royal Challengers Bangalore for US$1.1 million. He played for the Delhi Daredevils in the previous seasons. He has been crucial to the successful batting lineup of the RCB.
Twenty20 centuries
| Twenty20 Centuries of AB de Villiers | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | For | Against | Venue | Year |
| 1 | 105* | 54 | 5 | 6 | Delhi Daredevils | Chennai Super Kings | Durban | 2009 |
| 2 | 133* | 59 | 19 | 4 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Mumbai Indians | Mumbai | 2015 |
| 3 | 129* | 52 | 10 | 12 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Gujarat Lions | Bengaluru | 2016 |
World Records
- Fastest half-century (16 balls) and century (31 balls) in a One Day International (ODI), against the West Indies at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 18 January 2015.
- Fastest 150 in an ODI, in 64 balls against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia on 27 February 2015.
- Third Fastest in the world reach to 7000 ODI runs
- Second fastest in the world to reach 8000 runs in ODIs.
- Second Fastest player to reach 9000 runs in ODIs (205 innings). He took only 9005 balls to reach the milestone, which is also the quickest of all.
- Most sixes (16) in an ODI (tied with Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle), against the West Indies at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 18 January 2015.
- Most ducks (4) in an ODI series, at the 2007 Cricket World Cup (tied with Greg Chappell and Kyle McCallan).
- Most sixes (37) at the Cricket World Cup (tied with Chris Gayle).
- Highest T20 partnership of 229 runs off 92 balls for any wicket(2nd wicket), with Virat Kohli in the Indian Premier League in a match against Gujrat Lions where De villers remained unbeaten with 129 off 52 balls.Also both AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli put on an unbeaten 215 runs for the 2nd wicket in IPL, which is also the second highest partnership for any wicket in T20 history.
- Both AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli were the second pair of batsman in T20 history to score centuries in a single T20 in IPL 2016 against Gujarat Lions.
- Most Test innings (78) without registering a duck.
- Scored all his 25 ODI Centuries at strike rate greater than 100.
- He has the record for the highest individual score made by a batsman in an ODI innings when batting at number 5 position as well as in a World Cup match.(162*)
- Most test runs made by a batsman before being dismissed for a duck(2958)
- He holds the record for the joint most number of dismissals as wicketkeeper in a test match(11) with Jack Russell.
- He held the record for playing the most consecutive test matches with scoring a half-century until it was equalled by Joe Root(12)
National level records
- Leading run scorer for South Africa at the Cricket World Cup.
- Fastest T20I fifty by a South African (21 balls).
- Joint slowest T20I fifty by a South African (49 balls).
Personal life
In 2015, he and his wife Danielle had their first baby, a boy who was also named AB.
He is a devout Christian and has stated that his faith is crucial to his approach to life. He is also an accomplished guitar player and a singer. In 2010, he released a bilingual pop album entitled Maak Jou Drome Waar with his friend and acclaimed South African singer Ampie du Preez. He is also a self admitted Manchester United fan, having followed the club since Ryan Giggs debut.
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