"This is completely unfair!" exclaimed Shaun Pollock in the commentary box. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers had just directed a yorker on off stump past short third man to the boundary. Alongside Pollock was the eagle-eyed Ian Bishop. He was at a loss for words. The other 5 balls in that over went for 4 sixers and a couple.
AB de Villiers came to the wicket at number 3 with 69 legal deliveries left in the South African innings at Wanderers. At the other end was Hashim Amla, batting 115. South Africa's other opener had just been dismissed with a century to his name. Eleven overs and one ball later, de Villiers walked back to the pavilion having faced 44 balls of the 67 deliveries in his stand with his captain. He made 149. That's not an error. He made 149. He hit 16 sixers and 9 fours.
At the other end, ODI cricket's most prolific century maker was on his way to batting through his team's innings for a career best 153 not out. 25 year old Riley Roussouw made his maiden ODI century and added 247 in 235 balls with the captain.
No one will remember either of those innings. Do you remember who was batting at the other end when Sachin Tendulkar played his maiden first class innings? It was Alan Sippy. He made a century in that match. Lalchand Rajput got a rare 99 run out to make way for Tendulkar at number 4. But the 15 year old made an accomplished century and Sippy and Rajput are, at best, quiz questions today.
It takes something special to relegate a maiden ODI hundred and a career best from a great player into the boring background. Yes it was a flat wicket. Yes the ground is high above sea level. Yes, the Wanderers has acquired a reputation for producing some outrageously high scores. But even on a featherbed against bad bowling, most international batsmen only dream of making a century like this.
A lot of batsmen hit sixers these days. But AB de Villiers does it with such insouciance. Some of his sixers almost seem like afterthoughts. In this innings, he hit the exact same full length slightly outside off stump for six over cover point, straight down the ground and over fine leg. A couple of times, he seemed to walk across his stump to hit the six to square leg, but for whatever reason, usually to do with the line and length of the ball, decided that the straight hit would be the more appropriate option, and simply changed his shot! You may have heard it said that the great batsmen have a lot of time to play their shots, and usually have two or three shots to each ball. Today de Villiers seemed to have two of three sixers to each ball!
He is the most fearsome hitter in the history of the game. He also happens to be one of the finest batsmen in the history of the game. Not since Viv Richards has the best batsman and the best power hitter been the same player. If Viv was better than de Villiers, then he must have been some player. When he's on song, the ball seems to ping unerringly off his bat. I cannot help but feel that had de Villiers played for one of the three richest teams in international cricket, he would have been a superstar by now. No, he would have been the superstar.
For many, any all-time ODI XIs would have Adam Gilchrist as opener and wicketkeeper. Gilchrist is the quintessential wicketkeeper-batsman of the modern era. Many serious modern fans might also consider using Gilchrist as wicketkeeper-batsman in an all-time Test XI. Kumar Sangakkara, Gilchrist's closest rival for the job in many eyes, became a supreme Test batsman after he stopped keeping. In ODIs, Sangakkara has made more ODI centuries as a specialist keeper than any other player. He has 18 in 329 innings alongside 89 50s. Gilchrist made 16 centuries and 53 50s in 274 ODI innings as wicketkeeper. AB de Villiers has made 10 centuries and 17 half centuries in only 55 innings as ODI wicketkeeper for South Africa. He has 2963 runs at 70, with a strike rate of an even 100! The adjective Bradmanesque is used all too loosely sometimes, but in the case of de Villiers, it is well merited.
South Africa have a very strong team right now. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel form one of the most skilfull, hostile new ball pairs in history. Under Allan Donald, Morkel has blossomed. Behind them, Vernon Philander and Wayne Parnell, if South Africa decide to play both, are change bowlers who would easily play as a new ball pair for India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and arguably even England in the 2015 World Cup. Hashim Amla remains the most prolific ODI century maker of his era, better than Kohli, better even than de Villiers. But compared to de Villiers, Amla looks one dimensional. This South African side has three players who will definitely enter the history books as all time great cricketers. Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla would be, to use baseball terminology, undisputed first ballot hall of famers. But given just Steyn and Amla, skilfull opponents (and of these, the World Cup will feature many) can compete. Steyn can be played out, and Amla's runs alone could be cancelled out by runs from the best opposing player such as Virat Kohli, Brendon McCullum, David Warner, Kumar Sangakkara or a handful of others. But no team has a counterpart to AB de Villiers. McCullum, in his recent form, comes close. But even he is not quite in the same class as the sporting polymath from Pretoria.
If South Africa are favorites in a relatively open World Cup field, it is because of de Villiers. At Wanderers on January 18, 2015, de Villiers showed, as he routinely does, just why this is the case. In this instance, the result was a World Record. Rarely has perception, concentration and preparation been combined to such lethal effect at the international batting crease.