The former Proteas batter hit three centuries during the tournament and was by far the leading run-scorer.
Yes, it’s not the real thing and the bowling isn’t of the highest standard, but it still takes something special to do what AB de Villiers achieved at the recent World Championship of Legends tournament held in England.
If you didn’t know, the South African legends team won the tournament after beating Pakistan by nine wickets in the final at Edgbaston, in Birmingham, on Saturday.
After Pakistan posted a very respectable 195/5 in their 20 overs, the South Africans chased down the score with nine wickets in hand and 19 balls remaining.
De Villiers stole the show, as he did throughout the tournament.
On Saturday he scored 120 not out off 60 balls to steer South Africa home.
This was his third century in the tournament, to go with 3 (4), 63* (30), 116* (51), 123 (44), 6 (4). In all, in six innings he scored 429 runs at an average of 144 and strike rate of 220. De Villiers won four player-of-the-match awards.
The next best batter was SA team-mate JJ Smuts who scored 186 runs.
That is some batting by De Villiers.
Champions South Africa
It’s no surprise Pakistan legends team captain Mohammad Hafeez said that for his team to stand a chance of winning the final they’d have to get De Villiers out cheaply. They didn’t and South Africa won the tournament.
“It’s not a big World Cup, but we wanted to be competitive and make South Africa proud,” said De Villiers after the match.
He’d be dead right. It’s not even close to winning a World Cup, in 50 or 20 overs cricket – something South Africa are yet to achieve – but it’s still good and enjoyable to win any tournament, even if it is the legends who do it, in this case.
But if there were any thoughts of Mr 360 making a comeback, De Villiers quashed them quickly on Saturday.
“It’s not in me to do long tours anymore … I’ve also been struggling with a hamstring, side strain and back injury,” he said.
Well, it was good to see De Villiers in action again, anyway – he smashed 47 fours and 25 sixes in the tournament. What a player.
