African Sports Monthly International Women's Day Special Edition | Page 8

AB de Villiers shines like a beacon
on the global cricket circuit
By Farai Diza
There is arguably no bigger cricketing star on the planet now than AB De Villiers, and
in 2015 he scaled all kinds of new personal heights for South Africa. In January in one
of the most astonishing displays of hitting you’ll ever see he broke the record for the
fastest ever ODI hundred and then just a month later against the West Indies he
smashes the fastest ever World Cup 150.
A popular anecdote is that ‘the ball sails a long way in Johannesburg’ due to the
altitude and that the pitch offers even bounce at a good pace for the batsmen to
play their strokes, particularly in One-Day Internationals.

The kind of dominance displayed by AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla on January 18th
2016 would have taken even the most demanding batting conditions out of the
equation. Amla recorded his highest ODI score, an unbeaten 153, while de Villiers
smashed the fastest ODI off just 31 balls as South Africa registered a 148-run victory
over West Indies at the Wanderers to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.