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AB De Villiers sets the example for all batsmen in cricket

1st March, 2014
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South African AB de Villiers takes a 4 during the second day of their Test match against Australia AAP Image/Tony McDonough
Roar Guru
1st March, 2014
11
1729 Reads

Sometimes when I’ve had enough caffeine to sink a battleship I feel indestructible.

AB De Villiers doesn’t need caffeine.

He’s high on life, religion and cricket. But he sure does appear indestructible.

Someone was saying the other day there isn’t a sport he hasn’t mastered. Not just a golfer like Punter Ponting – he was a tennis champ and a good rugby player.

Makes you sick doesn’t it?

When AB is behind the stumps and when he is batting he looks like every sinew in his body is committed to the effort. Davey Warner reminds me of that. They twitch with excitement like a cougar.

But De Villiers outpoints all other batsmen, and outpoints all bowlers, because he is a student of the game.

This is something that Steve Smith, Alex Doolan, Warner, Shaun Marsh, Jordan Silk, Joe Burns, Travis Head, Sean Abbott, Luke Pomersbach, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch, Sam Whiteman, Shane Watson and a host of Australian batsmen would do well to emulate if they were fair dinkum.

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We have seen how he dealt with every Australian bowler. He is watertight in defence, uses his feet to attack and defend, uses the batting crease beautifully, picks up length instinctively and reacts accordingly.

It is almost like he has a catalogue of shots which meet every ball bowled.

Australian batsmen such as Punter, Mike Clarke, Watson, Mike Hussey, Steve and Mark Waugh, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and others of this era never quite developed a watertight defence and the ability to read every ball like AB and Sachin Tendulkar.

This was mostly because on turning tracks and when the ball reversed or swung alarmingly, they could not cope.

Pads got in front of bats quite a lot!

Australian batsmen are self made on Australian bouncy wickets, and proud of it. They don’t like being tinkered with. In fact, they can be downright cantankerous about it.

And the guys I named above came through an era where if their defence let them down, there was a pack of batsmen to score runs, and a pack of great bowlers to take wickets in clumps.

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Matt Hayden looked almost like he had the batting game beaten towards the end of his career. He could smash bowlers off a good length, keep the jaffa out…and mishit balls for six.

Sachin was perfection. Bradman was a run scoring machine in an era where pinpoint fast bowling, over after over , was not in evidence.

De Villiers has taken up where Sachin left off, and added athleticism to his defence and offence.

If he had batsmen to stay with him and relieve the pressure, and if he didn’t keep, he would score double and triple hundreds regularly. He is that good. Not to say that pressure cannot eventually tell on De Villiers because he has such a huge load in each game.

The game today is a supreme test. People may not rate Mitch Johnson, Pete Siddle, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon and Shane Watson as the greatest ever attack, but on the roads dished up in Test Cricket since 2008, they are as accurate and dangerous as any great attacks in history.

Johnson as we have seen can fire you out, the others think you out and noodle you out.

A great leg spinner is what Australia needs now to complement young quicks such as Pattinson, Cummins, Starc, Behrendorff, Coulter-Nile, Rainbird and co.

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Steyne, Morkel, Phillander and Abbott/Parnell are at least their equal. Hitting spots, either on the wicket or on the batter’s body is an art form. Reverse is an artform. Being tough bred South Africans is a source of great pride.

And when those guys know they have people such as De Villiers, Duminy, Elgar, Amla, Smith and others to score a bunch of runs, they relax and plot the downfall of any opposition batting line-up.

England have challenged them, India have challenged them, Pakistan gave them a fright…and Australia beat them.

But the result of the final Test will either confirm their greatness, or show a chink in their armour.

At the end of the day though, hats off to AB De Villiers. He is the next Sachin and Bradman, rolled into one.

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