AB de Villiers

Name AB de Villiers
Born February 17, 1984
Pretoria
Age 31 years 356 days
Teams Titans, Delhi Daredevils, Africa XI, South Africa, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Nickname A.B
Bat Style Right Handed Bat
Bowl Style Right-arm medium
Batting Statistics
Test ODI T20I IPL
Mat 106 197 63 104
Inn 176 189 60 93
Runs 8074 8484 1167 2569
Avg 50.46 54.04 22.88 36.7
SR 53.75 100.05 125.89 144.73
HS 278 162 79 133
NO 16 32 9 23
100s 21 23 2
50s 39 48 6 15
4s 933 748 104 218
6s 57 182 32 103
Bowling Statistics
Test ODI T20I IPL
Mth 106 197 63 104
Inn 5 9
Balls 204 192
Runs 104 202
Wkt 2 7
BBI 49 / 2 15 / 2 - / - - / -
BBM 49 / 2 15 / 2 - / - - / -
Eco 3.06 6.31
Avg 52 28.86
5W
10W
Profile
Born on February 17, 1984, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers has rose from the ranks to become one of the world's best batsmen, across all formats. When on song, de Villiers can take any bowling apart with his wide array of strokes on either side of the wicket. If his drives, pulls and cuts are pleasing to the eye, his ability to innovate has left bowlers hapless on many occasions.

A talented sportsman, de Villiers has not just excelled in cricket, but has also proved himself in other sports such as golf, rugby and tennis. Cricket was his passion though, and it soon turned out to be his chosen field for higher avenues. De Villiers spent his formative years with Nashua Titans, the Pretoria based franchise.

His supreme ability caught the eye of the selectors as he was fast-tracked into the national squad at an early age of 20. He made his Test debut against England in Port Elizabeth and showed his class with a fine knock of 52 in just his fourth innings with the bat, saving South Africa from what looked like a certain defeat. He registered his first century during the same series, a fine 109 on his home ground in Centurion.

Having played both as an opener and as a lower-order wicket-keeper-batsman in his first Test series, de Villiers was earmarked for greatness. He soon proved his worth by amassing 460 runs in his first away tour to the Caribbean Islands in 2005. A slump in form ensured - de Villiers battled for runs against Australia both at home and away - he had to wait until the home series against West Indies in 2007-08 to again reach the three-figure mark. However, he made up for the lost time, spanking a fine 217 against India in Ahmedabad, the first South African player to hit a double ton against India.

It was plain sailing later on for the flamboyant right-hander as he scored runs for fun. It included a superb 278 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in November 2010, briefly placing him at the top of the ladder for the highest individual score by a South African batsman. De Villiers soon grew in stature, becoming one of the mainstays of the South African team in their journey to attain the No.1 Test ranking.

An attacking batsman, de Villiers showed that he had it in him to play according to the merits of the situation as well. With South Africa struggling to save the Adelaide Test against Australia during the tour Down Under in 2012-13, de Villiers curbed his natural instincts, as he blocked his way to 33 from 220 balls. In the next Test at the WACA, he showed his other side, smacking 169 from just 184 balls as the visitors ruthlessly dismantled the hosts.

De Villiers is also one of the best ever players to grace the shorter formats, where he is currently ranked as the No. 1 batsman. Most of the ODI innings played by the master batsman, would be full of believe-it-or-not innovative shots, be it the ramp over the wicket-keeper, the cheeky paddles past short fine or the audacious reverse sweeps and reverse pulls while facing up to quick bowlers. Unquestionably, with his ability to manoeuvre the field placements and his excellent hand-eye co-ordination, de Villiers has turned out to be one of the most exciting batsmen across all formats of the game.

His knock of 278 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, 2010 was the highest individ

Scouts unearth India's cricket riches Bangalore, February 06 2016 by Manuja Veerappa

Talent scouting is serious business among Indian Premier League franchises these days. Over the past couple of seasons, scouts - coaches of repute or those roped in locally - have tracked the progress of domestic talents keenly. The benefits were reaped by the uncapped Indian players at the IPL auction on Saturday (February 6).
For someone like Pawan Negi, who has played 21 IPL matches, life is never going to be the same again. Barely 24 hours after he was named in the Indian squad for the ICC World TwentyT20, the left-arm spinner from Delhi with a starting price of Rs 30 lakhs invited some serious bidding from Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) and Delhi Daredevils.
Negi has played under MS Dhoni at Chennai Super Kings and it was obvious he would attract the attention of RPS, with both Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming now forming the core of the think-tank. But in the end, Delhi Daredevils rolled out the red carpet with a staggering Rs 8.5 crore, which was nearly 30 times his base price.
But Negi wasn't the only big gainer on the day. Statistically the auction belonged to the uncapped rising stars. Among the 94 players sold, 41 were capped while 53 were uncapped. The most remarkable figures of the auction are the 51 uncapped Indian players who were picked against the 15 capped ones.
The day saw the birth of many millionaires among the rising talents of the country. If Karun Nair (Rs 10 lakh base price) was snapped up by Delhi for Rs 4 crore, Deepak Hooda, who was moulded at Rajasthan Royals, went for Rs. 4.2 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Another player who took many by surprise was leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin from Tamil Nadu. Fleming ensured he added him to the roster at a jaw-dropping Rs 4.5 crore, making him the second-most expensive buy among the uncapped players.
The most telling rags-to-riches story of the auction was undoubtedly that of Nathu Singh. The 20-year-old medium-pacer from Jaipur, who made his first-class debut in October last year, has been a consistent performer but shot into fame when he was picked for the Board President's XI team for a warm-up game against South Africa last year.
The son of a factory worker ­ who wants to gift his mother a house with his IPL earnings of Rs 3.2 crore ­ was bought by Mumbai Indians after a battle with Delhi and then Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Akash Ambani from Mumbai Indians said Nathu was very much a part of the team's strategy and they were prepared to raise the stakes for the promising youngster. "We had no apprehension. We knew he would go for a certain price. We had budgeted more for him so we're glad that we got him."
Reflecting on the talent scouting process, Ambani explained, "We start scouting when the season begins and track all three formats of the game. John Wright is very important in this process. The scouts give us feedback and then we have a camp in January. We naturally look at a scorecard but scouting shows us things like how they perform under pressure and so on."
The scouts sure threw up many surprise packages, which included Hubli spinner Kishore Pramod Kamath and Krunal Pandya who fetched Rs 1.4 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively by MI.

Indian Premier League 2016 - Full squads February 06 2016

Rising Pune SuperGiants
Players acquired in draft: Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith
Acquired in auction: Kevin Pietersen (3.5 Crore), Ishant Sharma (3.8 Crore), Irfan Pathan (1 Crore), Mitchell Marsh (4.8 Crore), RP Singh (30 Lakhs), Ankit Sharma (10 Lakhs), Rajat Bhatia (60 Lakhs), Ishwar Pandey (20 Lakhs), Murugan Ashwin (4.5 Crore), Ankush Bains (10 Lakhs), Peter Handscomb (30 Lakhs), Baba Aparajith (10 Lakhs), Deepak Chahar (10 Lakhs), Thisara Perera (1 Crore), Ashok Dinda (50 Lakhs), Scott Boland (50 Lakhs), Adam Zampa (30 Lakhs), Jaskaran Singh (10 Lakhs)
From their approach, it appeared that Pune were keen to recreate the Chennai Super Kings magic with MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming at the helm of the affairs. The managed the big names, roped in Indian seamers and also got hold of a couple of quality overseas all-rounders. Pune also chose not to bid too big, with their biggest buy being just under the 5 crore mark, proving that they are not amateurs despite this being their first auction.
Gujarat Lions
Players acquired in draft: Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner
Acquired in auction: Dwayne Smith (2.3 Crore), Dale Steyn (2.3 Crore), Dinesh Karthik (2.3 Crore), Dhawal Kulkarni (2 Crore), Praveen Kumar (3.5 Crore), Paras Dogra (10 Lakhs), Ishan Kishan (35 Lakhs), Ekalavya Dwivedi (1 Crore), Pradeep Sangwan (20 Lakhs), Pravin Tambe (20 Lakhs), Shivil Kaushik (10 Lakhs), Sarbajeet Ladda (10 Lakhs), Aaron Finch (1 Crore), Umang Sharma (10 Lakhs), Jaydev Shah (20 Lakhs), Andrew Tye (50 Lakhs), Shadab Jakati (20 Lakhs), Amit Mishra (10 Lakhs), Akshdeep Nath (10 Lakhs)
With Suresh Raina leading Gujarat, the squad is filled with players from Uttar Pradesh, the winners of the recently-concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. Like Pune, Gujarat too did not spend a lot, considering that their IPL stay is only for two years. They went about smartly, with their biggest buy coming at under 4 crore.
Delhi Daredevils
Retention and transfers: Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammad Shami, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Albie Morkel, Imran Tahir, Jean-Paul Duminy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton de Kock
Acquired in auction: Sanju Samson (4.2 Crore), Chris Morris (7 Crore), Carlos Brathwaite (4.2 Crore), Karun Nair (4 Crore), Rishabh Pant (1.9 Crore), Pawan Negi (8.5 Crore), Sam Billings (30 Lakhs), Joel Paris (30 Lakhs) Chama Milind (10 Lakhs), Pratyush Singh (10 Lakhs), Syed Khaleel Ahmed (10 Lakhs), Pawan Suyal (10 Lakhs), Akhil Herwadkar (10 Lakhs), Mahipal Lomror (10 Lakhs)
Youngsters were their focus in this auction and they pulled off a few surprises, buying the likes of Negi, Morris, Nair and Brathwaite for big sums. But at the end of it, Delhi Daredevils ensured that they finished with a settled squad. A couple of surprising aspects of Delhi's strategy were that they did not go for the big guns at the start and they also ended up with three wicket-keepers.
Kings XI Punjab
Retention and transfers: Axar Patel, Anureet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manan Vohra, Murali Vijay, Nikhil Shankar Naik, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh
Acquired in auction: Mohit Sharma (6.5 Crore), Marcus Stoinis (55 Lakhs), Kyle Abbott (2.1 Crore), KC Cariappa (80 Lakhs), Pardeep Sahu (10 Lakhs), Armaan Jaffer, (10 Lakhs), Swapnil Singh (10 Lakhs), Farhaan Behardien (30 Lakhs)
Like Delhi, KXIP also did not register any bids for the marque players. They instead chose to go for domestic names, while Mohit and Abbott were their biggest buys. However KXIP failed to address certain issues. They lack of a power-hitter at the top of the order in the absence of Virender Sehwag, they do not have adequate strength in the spin department while they also failed to get hold of a back-up wicketkeeper.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Retention and transfers: Gautam Gambhir, Kuldeep Yadav,

India Under-19 reaping rewards of a pre-World Cup boot camp Dhaka, February 06 2016 by Prakash Govindasreenivasan

Team sport is a lot about the chemistry and bonding that the players share, the understanding of each others' strengths and weaknesses on the field and off it and taking forward strides with high levels synchronisation. Building a good team is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - unless all the pieces are in place, there is no real meaning to the big picture.
The camaraderie, in the India's Under-19 camp, is on the rise and there is bromance in the air as Ishan Kishan's boys move into the last four of the World Cup. This boisterous lot have not been together for very long but relationships have been forged and trust has been built, with a lot credit going to a pre-World Cup boot camp, initiated by Rahul Dravid, the team's head coach.
Ahead of the tournament, the Indian squad along-with their support staff including Dravid and Paras Mhambrey, the bowling coach, made a visit to Ramanagaram, a village in Karnataka. The players indulged in team-building exercises and got a chance to learn a lot more about each other and also did a bit of rappelling, rock climbing and mountain-hiking in preparation for the arduous task of playing in a World Cup.
"The bonding has been helping us a lot. All teams play together for a long time and they get to practice a lot. It's not like that with us. Other teams got five-odd tours but we had only two. Boot camp was very helpful because you develop a kind of camaraderie with each other and trust each other while carrying out tasks. Those things are helping us now and taking care of each other, thinking about others' problems," Kishan said, in a post-match press conference on Saturday (February 6), after India outclassed Namibia and stormed into the semis.
India have been fairly comfortable in recording five wins in five since arriving in Bangladesh. Over the course of its victories, the team has started to show promise in each department of the game and move slowly but steadily towards being a well-oiled unit. While their on-field acumen has been top-notch, Kishan believes there's scope to improve the team's mental aspect of the game as the margin of error is expected to narrow down to nearly-negligible from hereon. "Our batting is going well, fielding has been very good with single-handed catches and direct hits. The only area we want to improve on is mental toughness. We need to be mentally strong and not buckle under the pressure that it's a semi-final," he said.
The Indian skipper acknowledged the weight of expectation his team will carry forward, being two wins away from following the laurels of Mohammad Kaif (2000), Virat Kohli (2008) and Unmukt Chand (2012) to lift the Under-19 World Cup.
"It can happen in a World Cup semi-final since it's a big match, there are expectations since a lot of people are watching you on TV. We want to be as tough as possible and not care much about the result. We are not lacking in mental toughness," he explained.
For the first time in the tournament on Saturday, the Indian pacers did not get an early breakthrough. After the batsmen posted a humongous total of 349 for 6, the pace duo of Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed went for a few runs early on as the Namibian openers saw right through their short-ball theory and unleashed pull shots with good success. The start was breezy at best and one got a sense that Namibia weren't going to go down without a fight. Kishan feels his team did well not to panic in that situation."We don't want to panic which was good today also because they were off to a good start but we didn't panic," he said.
As the pressure of going all the way has started to mount, some of the Indian players also have the tough job of keeping their focus intact. On the day they confirmed their semifinal berth, four of their players also earned IPL contracts, with Rishabh Pant going for an eye-popping amount of Rs. 1.9 crore to the Delhi Daredevils. Kishan, who also won himself a spot in the T20 league, went to the Gujarat Lions for Rs. 35 Lakh and was de

INJURY TROUBLES

Hamstring injury rules Shami out of Australia tour

Last updated on Saturday, 09 January, 2016, 04:36 PM

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Mohammed Shami picked up the injury after the T20 tour game against WA XI © Getty

Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of India's limited-overs assignment in Australia after sustaining a hamstring injury while training ahead of the first tour game against Western Australia XI on Friday (January 8). Scans after the game revealed a Grade II injury to the pacer's left hamstring, which will require up to six weeks of recovery and rehabilitation.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be flown in as replacement for the injured Shami.

Shami, 25, was on his comeback trail and had only just returned to the Indian setup after being forced into a lengthy layoff for a knee injury picked up during the World Cup 2015, one for which he underwent surgery.

The Bengal pacer, who finished as India's second highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps at 17.29 in the quadrennial event, returned to national reckoning after promising performances in the 50-over domestic Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he returned figures of 1 for 40 and 2 for 52 from the two games. He followed that up with five more wickets from two T20 games.

Bhuvneshwar, who was left out of the One-Day International squad in favour of the returning Shami, is expected to join the squad on Sunday.

The first of the five-match ODI series will be played in Perth on January 12.

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INDIA TOUR OF AUSTRALIA, 2016

India-Australia rivalry remains focal point ahead of ODI series

Perth, by Vishaal Loganathan • Last updated on Sunday, 10 January, 2016, 06:17 PM

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Both Australia and India will play aggressive cricket, say George Bailey and Aaron Finch © Getty

India and Australia have always somehow, come up with truly exhilarating contests over the years, and George Bailey, the former Australia One-Day International captain, feels the upcoming five-match one-day series against MS Dhoni's side will be no different. Speaking to the media during the launch of the series, Bailey said both sides play a strong, aggressive brand of cricket and despite many young players coming into the sides, the rivalry will be as strong as it previously was.

Australia and India have played 118 matches so far, with the former winning 68 of those. However, the results have been much more evenly balanced since 2010 after India started peaking as a team under Dhoni. In the 15 games played since January 2010, Australia have won seven while the India have six victories.

"We've had a rich history and a strong rivalry with India," said Bailey, ahead of the first ODI in Perth on Tuesday (January 12). "We've had some fierce battles, both in India and here. They play a strong, aggressive brand of ODI cricket - in much the same mould as we do. We are going to have to be at our best. Both sides have some younger guys coming in. There has been a bit of changing of the guard post World Cup, but the rivalry will be strong, no doubt," he said.

Aaron Finch, the Twenty20 International captain, echoed Bailey's thoughts. "It's very strong. We're both two very passionate teams. Once we're on the field, India play with a lot of excitement and with their hearts on their sleeve. We all want to win games for our country and you do whatever you can within the rules. That's why there's been some great battles with India, some great confrontations, which I think adds to the excitement to the game. Nothing goes over the top, but it's passionate guys wanting to win games for their country."

The two teams are currently placed at the top of the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings, with the Australians at the top with a 13-point cushion. Australia also have a huge home advantage in the head-to-head games played between the two countries, having won 31 of the 43 games played at home.

But there is reason to hope for the visitors, too. This is the first time India and Australia will be playing a bilateral series Down Under. The first ODI India played against Australia in Australia, they managed to beat the hosts. Now, 25 years later, they will hope to win the first bilateral series, too.

"We've got a big rivalry against India and it's really a big deal for them to try and beat us. Particularly try and win away from home. We've got a great record in ODI cricket over the last couple of years, but there's been a huge amount of changes for us," said Bailey.

The teams have faced off in Perth only thrice before, with Australia winning twice, but Finch feels the wicket at Perth has changed recently and that the Indians will not face the problems as they previously did with the bounce and pace.

"I think in the past they have been [susceptible to pace bowling], but now they've got a great group of young players who have probably played here a lot more than they would have in the past. Maybe not in Perth exactly, but the Perth pitch has also changed in the last few years. I don't think there's the same amount of carry as there used to be. There's still a bit of extra bounce which they'll have to adjust to and we can try and exploit that straight away in the first game of the series. But I think their younger players are all pretty well-rounded players, so I'm sure that they will adapt," he added.

With the World Twenty20 round the corner, Bailey said he would use the upcoming games against India to try and stake a claim in the side for the shorter format. His last T20I game came almost two months ago, against Bangladesh in Dhaka, but Bailey feels his experience of playing in the subcontinent and in World Cups could help in turning the tide in his favour.

"Certainly scoring runs would be nice - that's first and foremost," he said. "There's a World Cup looming around the corner, and I'd love to be a part of it. I'll try to drop as many subtle hints as I can in front of Finchy [Aaron Finch]. And I'm pretty sure the selectors know I'm not retired now, so that's a step in the right direction.

"But runs are always the best currency. There are plenty of guys scoring runs. I guess what I can bring to the table is some experience - I've played a lot of T20 cricket in the subcontinent and had some experience in World Cups, so hopefully that holds me in good stead."

Finch, too, admitted that he had one eye on the World T20. "Yes I've sat down with Boof [Darren Lehmann] and with Rod Marsh and spoken to the other selectors about how I would like the team to structure up. I'm not a selector but we can have good conversations and I will have an opinion on the make-up of the team," he said.

© Cricbuzz