Personal and Early Life:
De Villers was born in a small town called Warmbad in South Africa to Abraham B De Villers and Millie De Villers on the 17th of February, 1984. He was educated at Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria along with teammate Faf du Plessis, returning home at weekends. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sports as a child. De Villiers proposed to his girlfriend, Danielle Swart, at the Taj Mahal in 2012, after five years of dating. The couple got married in March 2013, in Bela-Bela, South Africa. They have two sons. He is a devout Christian and has stated that his faith is crucial to his approach to life. He is also an accomplished guitar player and a singer. In 2010, he released a bilingual pop album entitled Maak Jou Drome Waar with his friend and South African singer Ampie du Preez. His autobiography, AB: The Autobiography was released in April 2020.
Cricketing Career Early Stages (AB De Villers):
After a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4. He made his Test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made a strong impression opening the batting, but was dropped down the order for the second Test and also handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match-saving half-century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final Test of the series. Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a Test series win, his rapid progress was slowed on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well and becoming the second-youngest and second-fastest South African to reach 1,000 Test runs after Graeme Pollock, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings.
On 18 January 2015, De Villiers scored both the fastest fifty and the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 16 balls and 31 balls respectively and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls in 59.5 minutes against West Indies. On 4 February 2013, De Villiers equalled Jack Russell’s record of 11 dismissals in a match. He also scored an unbeaten 103 off 117 balls in South Africa’s second innings of the same match. In the process, he became the first wicket-keeper to score a century and claim 10 dismissals in a Test. On 18 March, during the third ODI match of Pakistan’s tour of South Africa at Johannesburg, De Villiers and Hashim Amla shared the record for the highest third-wicket partnership in an ODI when they scored 238. De Villiers scored 12 fours and 3 sixes, and a total of 128.
The AB De Villers RCB Innings:
AB De Villers got his nicknames from his loyal fans here at Bengaluru once when he debuted for the home team RCB in the year 2011. He showed what pure class was by hitting the ball to all the corners of the ground. He infact set an example to the IPL logo too. He was fondly called Mr.360, Superman, AB positive, ABCD etc by the fans that he has got all over India. His contributions to the RCB team can never be forgotten. He also holds the record for the highest partnerships with Virat in a match against the Mumbai Indians. We hope the year 2020 goes out well for AB and we also expect the trophy to be lifted by him.
2015 World Cup Heart breaking Moments:
It was the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup semi finals held at Eden Park, New Zealand. The match was reduced to 43 overs a side due to rain. AB captained the RSA team. South Africa managed to score 281 out of their 43 over while AB scored 65* out of 45 balls. Bad luck favoriting SA the match was reduced further more due to rain and New Zealand were declared winners by D/L method. This was the most heart-breaking moment to the South African team as all the players literally went to tears, as this was an unjustified game where South Africa was supposed to enter the finals. Our captain AB De Villers wept a lot and finally had to bid good-bye to the world cup.
The Last Breath for Intl. Cricket (Retirement)
One of the greatest cricketer in the world finally declared a shocking news to all the fans of the cricketing world. It was the 23rd of May, 2018, when the entire world went into tears remembering his fine innings and contributions to the South African National team. We remember him always and would be forever in our hearts. We bleed AB positive.
We Love you AB De Villers!!!!!
Checkout our article on nostra pro