AB de Villiers aka Abraham Benjamin de Villiers aka Mr. 360 doesn’t need any introduction to the cricketing fraternity. He is the perfect example of a player with overflowing talent along with a great personality to back it up. Want him at the boundary to take some spectacular catches or need him behind the wickets as a wicketkeeper, Ab can do it all. And if you follow cricket then you already know it’s not even the primary talent of this player. If you have ever heard that AB was a fine rugby player, tennis player, and golfer then it’s not a myth as all of these things said about him are absolutely true.
Coming back to his cricketing career, then everyone already knows about his superpower to hit the ball anywhere and against any bowler. He really had a full arsenal of creative and unorthodox shots that you would only see him play. Before his retirement, AB has been ranked among the top Test and ODI batsmen in the world and has established himself as the boss of T20 cricket. Thanks to his splendid performance in IPL for Royal Challenge Bangalore, he has earned himself the badge of a most loved foreign cricketer of Indian fans.
Ab started his career as the opener but later he was moved into the middle order and asked to keep the wicket for the team. This became the story of his career. That’s why De Villiers has batted everywhere from No.1 to No.8 and performed well in most of those positions. There are many prime scenarios in his career like his prolific 298* against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi which was also his highest individual score in the test. However, he was also dropped from the team at the initial stages but as you know, strong players come back by becoming stronger. AB also returned early in 2008 with an amazing 103* against the West Indian. We are going to talk more about such accomplishments. But before let us talk about AB’s stats in all formats.
Stats – Which tells a great story of His Cricketing Career
| Format | Match | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s | 4s | 6s | NO |
| Tests | 114 | 191 | 8765 | 278* | 50.66 | 54.51 | 22 | 46 | 1024 | 64 | 18 |
| ODI | 228 | 218 | 9577 | 176 | 53.50 | 101.9 | 25 | 53 | 840 | 204 | 39 |
| T20I | 78 | 75 | 1672 | 79* | 26.12 | 135.1 | 0 | 10 | 140 | 60 | 11 |
| FC | 141 | 238 | 10689 | 278* | 49.71 | 56.18 | 25 | 60 | – | – | 23 |
| List A | 263 | 252 | 11123 | 176 | 53.47 | – | 29 | 63 | – | – | 44 |
| T20 | 340 | 320 | 9424 | 133* | 37.24 | 150.1 | 4 | 69 | 753 | 436 | 67 |
Accomplishments of AB de Villiers
1. Talking about AB is simply amazing because all of his records are conventional. Starting with the record that he only has accomplished till now is that he is the only batsman to score more than 2000 runs at an average of 50 plus and at a strike rate of 100 plus in one-day internationals. AB has scored 9577 runs at an average of 53.50 and at a strike rate of 101.09 in 228 one-day internationals.
2. AB de Villiers won the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year three times in his career. Only Virat Kohli apart from him has won this many awards. The records like hitting the fastest fifty in mere 16 balls in ODI cricket against West Indies in 2015 advocate why he’s been selected ICC ODI player most times. Not only this he also smashed a 31 balls ODI hundred against West Indies in the same match which is still the record for fastest ever ODI hundred of all time. During his knock against West Indies, AB equaled Rohit Sharma’s record for hitting the most number of sixes in an innings after hitting 16 balls out of the park.
3. AB de Villiers along with Virat Kohli is the batsman to average over 50 in both ODIs and Test. AB averages 50.66 in tests and 53.50 in ODI cricket. He has also scored 47 international hundreds combined all the formats. It is third-most by a South African and overall tenth most in the world.
4. In the 2015 World Cup, AB de Villiers smashed 150 runs in just 64 balls which is the fastest ever 150 of all time. As you know AB loves to strike the ball all over the ground and that’s why he has also hit 328 sixes in international formats and sits on the seventh position in the most sixes list.
5. AB de Villiers bagged his first duck in Test cricket against Bangladesh in November 2008 after playing 78 innings – the most innings played before first-ever duck in Test cricket. He is also among the only twelve batsmen in the world to score 20,000 or more runs in international cricket. He scored 20,014 runs in 420 matches with 47 hundred and 109 fifties.
6. AB de Villiers finished as the second-highest run-getter for South Africa in international cricket. He finished his career ahead of some of South Africa’s greats like Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, and Herschelle Gibbs and was just behind another legend Jacques Kallis.
7. In 184 IPL matches, ABD went on to score 5,162 runs at an average of 40. He hit three tons and 40 fifties with the best score of 133*. He is among the six batters with 5000+ runs in IPL. He is also one of the two players to smash 250-plus sixes in the competition with 251 sixes. AB also holds the record for the highest and the second-highest partnership records in the competition. He and Kohli made a 229 run stand in 2016 against Gujrat Lions and before that, in IPL 2015 the same pair made an unbeaten 215 run stand against Mumbai Indians.
Endnotes
Ab de Villiers is among the batters in the world about whom you can’t just stop talking. Players like these have had a huge impact on cricket over the years and now that he has retired we thank AB de Villiers for his entertaining innings. This was everything about AB’s stats and his accomplishments in Cricket. We hope you liked this article. Until Next time, Goodbye!