A.B. De Villiers - Captain of S. Africa and best batsman in the World

Abraham Benjamin "AB" De Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a South African cricketer, who captains the South African One Day International (ODI) team, having succeeded Graeme Smith after the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Widely regarded as the best batsman in the world at present, De Villiers dominated the top of the ICC Test batting rankings in 2014, along with Kumar Sangakkara. As of January 2015, he is ranked second in the ICC Test and first in the ODI batting rankings.

The son of Dr Abraham P de Villiers, he attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a public school located in Pretoria. De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who, in a very short space of time, has accumulated many runs in Tests including 16 centuries and 32 fifties. He still holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78), before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008.

He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278*. Until 2012, he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although since the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own ODI captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, but then decided to give up wicketkeeping after the debut of Quinton de Kock, and started becoming a part-time bowler.

Fastest 50 in 16 balls

He holds the record for the fastest 50(16 balls), 100(31 balls) and 150(64 balls) in One Day Internationals. On 18 January 2015, AB de Villiers smashed the fastest century in ODI history, breaking New Zealand's Corey Anderson's record, reaching 100 off just 31 balls and going on to score 149 runs off just 44 balls against the West Indies.

De Villiers became the second youngest and second fastest South African to reach 1000 test runs after Graeme Pollock and in his test career so far has batted, bowled and kept wicket as well. He is a talented sportsman and has excelled in golf (playing off scratch despite playing infrequently), rugby, badminton, cricket and tennis. However, he chose to pursue a career in cricket and, after a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4. He also played for Carrickfergus Cricket Club in Northern Ireland as their overseas player in 2004.

He made his Test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made an 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 and has played the majority of his tests there.

Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a test series win, his rapid progress was halted on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings.

He has been used in a similar fashion to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs, opening the innings, although he currently bats in the middle order. The 2005 ODI tour to India represented a 'coming of age' for De Villiers as a cricketer as he scored his second ODI half century on 24 October 2006, batting 5th in a partnership with Mark Boucher, playing against an impressive Sri Lankan side. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his then highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 12 fours and one six, from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series.

Outstanding fielder too

De Villiers has a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2006, when he dived to stop the ball, and while still lying on his stomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder and effected a direct hit. This has also led people to make further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes as he was also one of the finest fielders of his generation.

In 2009 he was nominated as ICC Cricketer of the year and ICC Test Player of the year.

De Villier's 100 in 31 balls

On 18 January 2015, de Villiers scored the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 31 balls and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls.

On 27 February 2015, De Villiers scored 162 runs of 66 balls in a match against the West Indies in Pool B of 2015 Cricket World Cup; leading South Africa to their second highest total in world cup history (408) on the Sydney Cricket Ground. With this feat, he became the record holder for the all fastest 50, 100, and 150 in One-Day International history.

Under the captaincy of De Villiers, South Africa qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup, but lost to New Zealand in the match. He is also considered as No. 1 cricketer if it comes to T20, One Day & Test matches altogether.

A.C. de S