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AB de Villiers embodies the virtue of consistency

Ab de Villiers devastated after South Africa's loss the New Zealand in the Cricket World Cup semi
Roar Guru
18th May, 2018
6

“Saw #SpiderMan Live today!” tweeted Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli skipper after AB de Villiers took a single-handed diving catch to dismiss Hyderabad’s Alex Hales. Bangalore won that mate, and De Villiers had made the difference.

De Villiers can cut, drive and even loft pacers on a seaming deck, as he showed on seaming pitches in Tests against India and on equally challenging pitch conditions against Australia.

He teases with copybook technique style, with the basics remaining the same. Cricket pundits often point out that greats like Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara could play two shots to the same delivery, but De Villiers is a notch higher. He has six or seven shots for a delivery. He can play those reverse, lapse, scoops.

There are no miss-hits, no edges running away behind the wicket. Each and every shot is sublime, but he still keeps an eye on the ball until it’s delivered. He makes all his adjustments within a matter of seconds.

Take a recent example of his first Test innings against a topside India back in January In the first innings of the first Test, De Villiers arrived at the crease with the score reading seven for two, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar making the ball swing both ways and making it almost unplayable for batsmen.

The first ball AB faced from Bhuvi was with a double trigger movement, moving back and across to punch. It didn’t take AB even a little while to counter Kumar’s threat. The bowler, shaken up by the response from the batsman, pitched it short and was again taken for runs.

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When India’s pacers tested him in that one square foot window outside the off-stump, De Villiers was back to either solidly defending off the front foot or allowing it go, frustrating the bowler even on a surface completely in his favour. No wonder the South African won the series against India and Australia.

AB de Villiers’ talent was never in doubt when he started, but he always threw it away after he getting off to a beautiful start, and it wasn’t until Graeme Smith and Micky Arthur spoke to him during the 2008 England tour – they were frank in their assessment, telling him the time had come for him to do justice to his talent – that he responded with 174 in the next match.

Since then his career has taken off, be it for is IPL franchise or in the national jersey.

If you think that was all he could do, then just look at his innings of 33 off 220 balls against Australia at Adelaide Oval or 43 off 297 balls against India in Delhi.

After the retirement of Mark Boucher, De Villiers kept two series, against England and Australia, back in 2012, not to forget his bowling in ICC World Cup 2015, which got him few wickets. He has also captained South Africa to ODI series wins in Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, UAE and England.

The only thing missing from his crown of success is an ICC Tournament win, and his presence along with senior pros such as Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis has given the Proteas perhaps one more crack at glory.

But a decade-long career like AB de Villiers’ couldn’t have happened without discipline, talent and, most of all, consistency, which makes him not just special but dangerous as well.

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