AB de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, which had been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to push him up to open
Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town21-Mar-2009
AB de Villiers made an entertaining 163 © Getty Images
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy rivalry if it means thebar gets set higher and higher. South Africa had two men who wanted tobat at No. 5 in this Test: Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers. de Villiers was given the nod, Prince was reluctantly forced into the unfamiliar role of opening. If it was a cunning plan by the SouthAfrican selectors to spark something special from their batsmen, itworked.Big hundreds to both players ensured a permanent smile on the face ofthe convenor of selectors Mike Procter as he sat in the stands atNewlands over the past couple of days. It also meant he breathed asigh of relief after Prince and de Villiers were involved in someheated exchanges as their domestic teams clashed on the weekend, afterthe batting order for this Test had been named.It raised questions over whether the Newlands dressing room would be ahappy place during this match. Despite the lingering frustration fromPrince, who said after making 150 that he would have preferred to batin his usual No. 5 spot, the team environment could be nothing butjoyous after they made 651.de Villiers’ contribution of 163 continued his brilliant series, whichhad been the intention when the coach Mickey Arthur declined to pushhim up to open. He often went in first during the early part of hiscareer but he has averaged 36.14 as a Test opener, compared to 49.84when he hasn’t opened.”Not at all, no,” de Villiers said when asked if the team had offeredhim the opening role again for this match. “Mickey said that I’m goingto stick in the middle order, that’s where I’ve been scoring my runsand I deserve to stay in the same spot, I don’t have to change.”Unfortunately for Ashwell he had to, the only spot left wasthe opening spot, but it paid off for him. I’m very, very happy forhim. But that’s how the team works. When you go out, you come [back]in wherever is best for the team. The team comes first.”It was probably for the best that neither Prince nor de Villierssignificantly outperformed the other. Not that de Villiers really hadanything to prove. He has been one of South Africa’s strongestperformers during the six Tests against Australia and he has scored600 runs at 75.00 during the home and away series. He saved his best,and most entertaining, for what will almost certainly be his lastinnings of the contests.For a brief moment it looked like de Villiers might achieve somethingthat has eluded batsmen in Test cricket for 132 years. When deVilliers slammed the first four balls of an Andrew McDonald over forsix, there was every possibility he might become the first man in Testhistory to hit six sixes in an over. By the middle of the over, thegoal was on his mind.”When I hit three [consecutive sixes], Albie [Morkel] came halfwaydown and said ‘listen, you’ve got to make a decision here, if you’regoing to go for six in a row’. So I said ‘geez, we’re playing Testcricket here Albs’. But then the fourth one went over and [I thought]let’s give it a go, why not. He bowled a good yorker for the fifth oneso it obviously wasn’t meant to be.”Prior to de Villiers, only Kapil Dev and Shahid Afridi had struck fourconsecutive sixes in a Test innings. The seven sixes that de Villiersfinished with was a South African Test record and the aggressivestreak has always been a feature of de Villiers’ game.But after play, he insisted his batting style had become less flashyover the past two years. It is true that de Villiers now has theability to grind out an innings. It’s a byproduct of maturity; deVilliers is still only 25 but is playing his 52nd Test – the samenumber that Don Bradman played in his 20-year career.In the early days, he was asked to open and sometimes to keep wicketsbut he has benefited from a clearly defined role in the past couple ofseasons. de Villiers doesn’t want his job to change – other than aneventual promotion to No. 4 – but he concedes that when Mark Bouchereventually hangs up his gloves there may be pressure for him to takeover behind the stumps.”Ideally I’d like to bat at four and not keep,” he said. “But if theteam wants me to take the gloves in a few years’ time … we’ll have anice chat when that happens. I can’t be the wicketkeeper if I reallywant to be a top world-class player, but we’ll see what happens in twoor three years’ time.”For now, he’s happy to be the No. 5. As the coach said, de Villiersdoesn’t have to change.
