MATCH 19: AB de Villiers arrived at the Cricket World Cup 2015 with a scintillating 162 as South Africa beat West Indies by a crushing 257-run margin.
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De Villiers scorched the fastest 150 in ODI history, 64 balls, as he showed his shot making genius. His unbeaten 161 came in only 66 balls and included 17 fours and 8 sixes.
Imran Tahir took his first ODI five wicket haul, 5 for 45, to deny the West Indies any chance of chasing down South Africa’s mammoth 408 for five. The West Indies were dismissed for 151 in 33.1 overs.
The winning margin was the fifth most comprehensive in ODI history.
Kyle Abbott removed the two most dangerous batsmen – Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels – up front and then Imran Tahir claimed two wickets in an over on two occasions.
As was the case at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium when he shattered the record for the fastest century, De Villiers reduced all his colleagues to side shows in spite of their own quality. The Proteas will have taken particular heart from the performances of both Abbott and Rilee Rossouw who came into the game as fringe players and might not have got game time had Vernon Philander and JP Duminy been fit.
Rossouw’s innings was particularly impressive as he came to the crease at a stage when the Proteas lost two established batsman, Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis, after a 127-run partnership for the second wicket, and had to start from scratch with De Villiers.
He actually matched De Villiers run for run for the duration of his innings, finishing on 61 (39 balls, 6 fours and a six) in a partnership of 134 in 12.3 overs. His judgment of length was impeccable as he played a variety of drives and pulls for most of his runs.
AB de Villiers
The pair also shared a batting power play that was worth a South African record 72 runs without loss, the highlight being the fact that there was not a single dot ball in the five overs. They either hit boundaries or resorted to tip-and-run and turned singles into two’s.
Apart from the glorious mix of conventional, unorthodox and downright outrageous that De Villiers brings with one of the most imaginative minds the game has ever seen, a highlight was the running between the wickets between De Villiers and Rossouw and then between De Villiers and David Miller who added a further 48 for the fifth wicket in only 4.3 overs.
But that was just the prologue to the final show as De Villiers, supported by Farhaan Behardien, added an unbroken 80 for the sixth wicket in only 3.2 overs. De Villiers took 34 off Jason Holder’s ninth over and 30 off his 10th to see his figures mushroom from 1/40 in 8 to 1/104 in 10. He had had an opening spell of 1/9 in 5…..
The Proteas finished on 408/5 with 78 of those runs coming in the last three overs. It was the highest ODI total ever on Australian soil while the winning margin of 257 runs equalled the World Cup record established by India against Bermuda at Queen’s Park Oval in 2007. It was just one run short of the South African record.
There were plenty of other World Cup records, notably the 261 runs scored in the last 20 overs and the 150 in the last 10.
Ironically, the two main talking points before the game had been the impact Gayle would have with the bat and the performance of South Africa’s fifth bowling option. As it turned out Gayle made his main contribution with the ball, dismissing Amla and De Villiers in quick succession and having tidy figures of 4/24 in 4 overs.
Such was the demolition job done by Abbott, Imran and company, not to mention the pressure of runs on the scoreboard, the Proteas did not need a fifth bowler although Du Plessis did turn his arm over for three overs.
Apart from confirming that the Proteas have now arrived at the World Cup, the one lesson they will have reminded themselves is that a solid foundation from the top three is essential to make the later fireworks possible. The key factor is wickets in hand going into the final 15 overs. Amla and Du Plessis won’t hit the headlines today but their partnership was crucial to what followed.
“Credit has to go to the guys who set up the base, the intensity when I came in was great and I wanted to keep that energy up,” said Player of the Match de Villiers after the game. “Watching the ball is very important, but you have to know your own game that is the key.
“I enjoy myself out there I never see things as risks. I earn the right to have a go at the bowlers after the work I do early on. It was our day today and I am sure West Indies will bounce back.”
West Indies captain Jason Holder said: “I thought we did good early on with the ball, but AB took the game away from us.
“If you take away his innings we are looking at a totally different score but we dropped catches and didn’t make it easy for ourselves.
“We have areas to improve, especially our death bowling, but we need to take our positives from this game and move on. We are very confident we can make the quarter finals.”
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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