AB de Villiers stunned the cricketing world by scoring a blitzkrieg century in the second ODI against West Indies. His century came off just 31 balls, a world record,
South Africa beat West Indies by 148 runs yesterday at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in the second ODI.
However, that was not the top news in cricket yesterday; it was about the man who stole the show like no one had ever done before – AB de Villiers.
The South African middle order batsman scored the fastest century in One Day Internationals, in the process breaking the record set by New Zealand’s Corey Anderson in January last year.
De Villiers’ century came off just 31 balls as he pummelled the West Indies bowling to all parts of the ground. And mind you, these shots were not slogs, but an amalgamation of clean and innovative strokes. He ended the innings with the score of 149 runs off just 44 balls.
The hosts reached the total of 439 losing three wickets, just four runs short of the highest ODI total (443) scored by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands.
During his record score, #ABDevilliers hit 16 sixes, joint number of sixes in an ODI innings alongside Rohit Sharma.
Though de Villiers’ century was indeed the highlight of the day, what the overall scoreboard looked like was definitely the second on the list. The first three batsmen had registered centuries with the fourth batsman (David Miller) staying not out on 0 without playing a single delivery.
Before the 30-year-old de Villiers arrived at the crease, South Africa had already registered an opening stand of 247 runs. Where Hashim Amla scored 153 runs off 142 balls (his 18th ODI career century), Rilee Rossouw registered his maiden ODI ton scoring 128 runs off 115 deliveries.
The West Indian bowlers were constantly in search of that one delivery that would rid the set batsmen immediately only to be denied the same. Jason Holder, especially, bore the maximum brunt as he was hit for 7 sixes in his 9 overs while conceding 91 runs.
The tourists did try to chase the total, but it was too late before the batsmen actually began their counter-attack. Chris Gayle has been one of their saviours on this tour on multiple occasions; however, yesterday he departed after scoring 19 runs off 13 balls. West Indies ended up with the overall score of 291 for 7 in the allotted 50 overs.
The South African team wore their pink kit, which they wear in matches to create breast cancer awareness. This was only the third time the Proteas wore this kit and they have won all the matches wearing this gear.
With this win, South Africa leads the 5-match ODI series 2-0.
