AB de Villiers blows away Bangladesh to guide Proteas to series win
Boland Park is perhaps South Africa’s prettiest cricket ground, and it was rendered lovelier still while AB de Villiers painted a picture here on Wednesday.
At least, De Villiers’ 176, his career-best performance in a one-day international, was a pretty picture for South Africa’s supporters.
Not so the sizable contingent of Bangladeshi fans, who saw a fine innings — but an innings that condemned their team to defeat by 104 runs and with it a series loss.
South Africa, who were put into bat for the third time in the four matches Bangladesh have played on tour, totalled 353/6; a record for this ground.
The visitors, bolstered by Imrul Kayes’ 68 and Mushfiqur Rahim’s 60, made it to 249 before they were dismissed in 47.5 overs. Andile Phehlukwayo took a career-best 4/40 and Imran Tahir claimed 3/50.
Not that Kayes or Mushfiqur, or many others anywhere in the game, would have been able to match De Villiers for dash, dare and dazzle.
That his opponents were the willing but wanting Bangladeshis aided and abetted his dominance, but any attack would have struggled to contain him in this mood.
De Villiers reached his century off 68 balls and in all faced 104. He hit 102 of his runs in fours and sixes, and he hit them with the kind of determination that suggested he had come to prove a point.
Maybe he had. Having last played for South Africa in June in what turned out to be his final game as South Africa’s ODI captain, De Villiers cannot fail to have heard the whispered wonderings about whether he was still a key member of South Africa’s team.
Hell yes, Wednesday’s innings yelled from the ground’s lowslung rooftops, and the tiptops of the trees that ring the place, and the peaks of the mountains brooding beyond, and the clouds wreathed above even them.
The match could be divided into three distinct parts. It was ordinary before De Villiers arrived at the crease at the end of the 18th over, extraordinary until the 48th — when he holed out to seamer Rubel Hossain — and back to ordinary for the rest of the game.
To fill you in on the ordinary bits, South Africa resisted experimenting with their batting order against opponents they hammered by 10 wickets in the first match of the series in Kimberley on Sunday.
Instead, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock rattled up an opening stand of 90 inside 18 overs.
But three balls after Shakib Al Hasan ended the partnership by trapping De Kock in front for 46, he cleanbowled Faf du Plessis for a duck.
Not that Bangladesh could make much of their twin strike as Amla and De Villiers added 136 for the third wicket. That stand ended when Rubel had Amla caught behind for 85, and there was more relief than celebration when De Villiers went.
Rubel dismissed JP Duminy and Dwaine Pretorius with consecutive deliveries in the last over of the innings to take 4/62.
But there was little else for the visitors’ fans to cheer. Their loudest burst of happiness went up for a verse, played on the public address late in the day, of a famous Bengali song.
It was called “Pagla Hawa”, or Crazy Wind.
That’s De Villiers, right there.