AB smashes world record
Records fell everywhere as the skipper cut loose.
NO one likes getting woken up while having a Sunday afternoon nap. They’re well earned, especially when you have two children under the age of 31 months.
But when the message reads ‘You watching this cricketing carnage?’ you know it’s time to stop inspecting the insides of one’s eyelids and pay attention.
I had stopped watching/fallen asleep when Hashim Amla was on 70 something and Rilee Rossouw on 80 odd. I think.
When I saw that AB de Villiers was on 82 off a number of balls figure which I couldn’t read, I sat upright and opened my eyes further.
When I saw that it was 25 balls or so I thought there must be some mistake, or that it was time to book an appointment with the optometrist.
The West Indies are pretty average with the ball without Sunil Narine and Kemar Roach, but still, this was quite something.
The wife said she was off to make some coffee. By the time she got back three minutes later, AB de Villiers was well past 130.
Well, it seemed like it.
It was astonishing stuff. All the bowlers had a severe case of ‘scorched oesophagus’ (sluk pyp) from watching the ball soar through the Johannesburg sky, while staring upwards with open mouths.
World records tumbled. Shahid Afridi, who recently announced his disappointment at not having his 37 ball century at the top of the list, is now third.
AB stands atop on 31 balls, Corey Anderson of New Zealand in second on 36 balls.
He tied the record for most 6s, a total of 16.
To quote Firdose Moonda of Cricinfo: “In less than an hour, de Villiers took an innings which was building well and turned it into a skyscraper. He clobbered 16 sixes, the most by a South African and the joint-highest number of sixes overall in an ODI innings, and dominated a 192-run second-wicket stand with Amla which lasted just 67 deliveries and in which runs were scored at 17.12 to the over. Amla only faced 30 balls and contributed 33. Such was de Villiers’ dominance.”
To think that he had considered sending David Miller in at three!
In the end he made 149 off 44 balls. Mind-boggling. 9x 4s and 16 x 6s. Strike rate 338,63.
South Africa broke its 438-9 record by one run, although there was a ball still remaining in that famous game at the same ground (Wanderers) on the same pitch in March 2006.
One fan felt AB may quite possibly be the the most outstanding athlete in the world at the moment.
The only disappointment was that SA did not break the world record, which is 443 by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands, also in 2006. That shouldn’t count though, as the Netherlands is not a Test playing status nation.
Now he just needs to do it when it really matters … at the World Cup. Preferably against Australia.
