At gunpoint: Amla or AB?

Somebody puts a gun to your head and tells you that, for whatever reason, there's not enough room in the Proteas team for Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. There's space for just one of them - and you have to pick him.

So, who do you choose?

There are probably many people who would go for De Villiers on the back of his ODI record, his 31-ball century that eclipsed the previous mark by five balls.

To boot, he is the No1 ODI batsman in the world at the moment, according to the official rankings.

On the other hand, Amla has a higher batting average - 54.94 to De Villiers's 52.39 - and he holds the world record for the fastest to reach 5000 ODI runs.

He is No3 on the rankings, but he once held the top spot with a score rating that is higher than any other active batsman.

Personally, I'd probably lean towards Amla, although the thought of omitting De Villiers is unthinkable (though not quite as unthinkable as voluntarily asking for a bullet in the brain).

I'm loath to describe sports heroes purely by statistics, but it can help occasionally.

In the case of Bafana Bafana on Monday night, the South Africans played out of their skins for most of the match, taking a 1-0 lead against the top team in Africa.

And then, sadly, Algeria lived up to the pre-match statistics.

Sure, it didn't help that Tokelo Rantie missed that penalty, but that's all part of the growing pains.

Sometimes statistics don't lie.

But they really can lie too, sometimes.

According to statistics, Deontay Wilder became the first American in nearly a decade to win a version of the world heavyweight title when he outpointed Haiti-born WBC champ Bermane Stiverne at the weekend.

Their bout, on the 73rd birthday of ailing legend Muhammad Ali, was also the first heavyweight title contest at the MGM Grand since Mike Tyson bit both of Evander Holyfield's ears in 1997.

Not only was Wilder unbeaten going into the bout, but he'd never been past four rounds in 32 outings - nobody expected him to win if it went to scorecards.

At 2.01m and with a reach of 211cm, he's bigger than Wladimir Klitschko, who statistically is closing in on Joe Louis's record as the longest-reigning heavyweight champion.

If anybody put a gun to my head and asked if I rated Louis or Klitschko higher, I'd probably die laughing before they could pull the trigger.

I've written before that I don't rate Klitschko highly, but equally I doubt Wilder is good enough to beat him.

If they were to meet, I can't guarantee I would tune in.

Maybe I would watch the highlights package. Maybe.

The thing that attracts fans more than statistics are the great sporting moments, like Ali beating George Foreman, or Pieter van den Hoogenband downing Ian Thorpe at the Sydney Olympics, or Joel Stransky nailing that drop goal in 1995.

Most people will only remember Klitschko for boring fans to tears, no matter what statistics he tries to conjure up.

People will remember AB's century against the West Indies for years to come, and nobody is going to forget Amla's triple hundred in that England Test for as long as they breathe.

This duo have had their great sporting moments, but they also have the statistics to back them up.