Proteas captain AB de Villiers is set to make his 200th ODI appearance for the Proteas when they play Australia in Barbados.
When De Villiers blitzed his way to a 31-ball century – the fastest ODI century in history –against West Indies in Johannesburg, former England cricker Sir Ian Botham described him as ‘probably the most complete batsman he has ever seen’.
De Villiers has spent most of his career entertaining cricket fans, providing batting masterclasses to fellow batsmen, and bowlers are still yet to find a place safe enough to hide from his onslaughts. There have been few batsman that have provided as many memorable innings as he has, and on Sunday he will look to do it yet again, for the 200th time. Only Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes haver played more than him in coloured clothing.
Here are some of AB de Villiers’ timeless innings:
Maiden ODI century
146 South Africa vs West Indies, National Cricket Stadium St Georges, 10 April 2007
De Villiers opened the batting in this Super Eights World Cup match against the hosts in Grenada. The game came after an embarrasing loss to Bangladesh, and the Proteas needed to win the game to get their campaign back on track. De Villiers proved just the right catalyst. In a slow wicket he reached his half-century off 58 balls and his ton came up off 114, before being dismissed in the 44th 0ver by Corey Collymore for 146 off 130 balls. South Africa won the game by 67 runs.
Highest ODI score
162* South Africa vs West Indies, Sydney Cricket Ground, 27 February 2015
This was another great World Cup inning by De Villiers, this time in Australia. He came in to the middle at No 5 with South Africa in a good position. This afforded De Villiers with just the perfect platform; and he launched. He reached his half-century off 30 balls and lifted his bat for his ton 21 balls later. De Villiers smashed Jason Holder for 28 runs in the final over to bring up the fastest ODI 150 off 65 balls. South Africa won the game by 257 runs.
Fastest ODI century
149 South Africa vs West Indies, Wanderers Stadium Johannesburg, 18 January 2015
This is probably the most famous of De Villiers’ knocks. This was during the pink ODI at the Wanderers Stadium and the West Indian bowlers struggled for success with both openers Hashim Amla (153 not out) and Rilee Rossouw (128) scoring big centuries. De Villiers came in to bat in the 39th over joining Amla at the crease. He reached his half-century in a record 18 balls, subsequently making a mockery of previous records by reaching his ton off a mere 31 balls. He faced just 44 balls for his score of 149. South Africa went on to win the game by 148 runs.
Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
