AB de Villiers’s IPL numbers are ridiculous
AB de Villiers is on fire in the 2021 Indian Premier League and his 40th IPL career half century also took him past 5000 tournament runs.
AB de Villiers, at 37 years of age, is batting with as much potency as he did when he first played in the IPL nearly 14 years ago. His Man of the Match display, an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls, was his second half century in five innings this tournament.
De Villiers has to be a certainty for the Proteas T20 World Cup.
He has indicated he has the desire to play for the Proteas and on form alone he has kicked down the selection door.
De Villiers’s innings ensured the Royal Challengers Bangalore sneaked a one run win against the Delhi Capitals. De Villiers, keeping wicket, also took three catches.
De Villiers is the first South African to score 5000 runs in the IPL and the second foreigner after Australia’s David Warner.
Warner immediately tweeted that De Villiers was his ‘idol’ and that the South African was a ‘RCB Legend’
Warner captains the SunRisers Hyderabad.
De Villiers, in 2021, has scored 204 runs at an average of 68 and a strike rate of 174.35. He played six matches, batted five times and hit 16x4s and 10x6s.
De Villiers, in going to 5053 runs on Tuesday, did so in his 175th match and in his 161st innings. He also went past 400 for fours hit (406) and increased his sixes to 245 with the five sixes in his unbeaten 75.
He has now faced 3309 balls in the IPL and has an IPL career average of 40.01, a career strike rate of 152.70 and has his unbeaten 75 was his 40th half century, to go with three centuries.
Complete breakdown of AB de Villiers’s IPL numbers, year on year.
Cricinfo, before De Villiers’s heroics on Tuesday, picked six of his finest innings in the IPL.
Also, on www.keo.co.za