AB de Villiers: His remarkable international career in numbers

Well, after 14 years of wowing cricket fans across the world with a Proteas crest on his chest, AB de Villiers has finally called time on his remarkable career.

The 33-year shocked the cricket on Wednesday, as he old made the announcement that he is retiring from international cricket with immediate effect, just days after his Indian Premier League franchise (IPL) the Royal Challengers Bangalore, were eliminated from the glitzy T20 competition.

This come after he made a return to the Test side, after a self-induced hiatus, which saw him miss out on the big away series against England, where the Proteas were convincingly beaten 3-1 across four matches, before he was back helping the side along to successful home series against India and Australia.

“It would not be right for me to pick and choose where and when, and in what format I play for the Proteas,” he said in a short video posted on social media.

This brings to an end a career which began when he was called up to join the Proteas Test side as a 20-year old, and a potential successor to Mark Boucher behind the stumps, after the veteran keeper was initially left out of the squad for the home Test series against England in the summer of 2004.

AB de Villiers’ career by the numbers

Having watched from the other end, as his skipper, Graeme Smith’s arch nemesis, Matthew Hoggard sent him back to the pavillion with the first ball of the series, de Villiers managed to hang on for 81 deliveries, on his way to the first 28 of what would become 8765 Test runs, amassed over 114 matches and 191 innings.

His run tally places him fourth behind, Jacques Kallis, Smith and Hashim Amla in the list of leading run scorers from South Africa in the longest format, where he is unlikely to be overtaken anytime soon as Faf du Plessis, some 5 000 runs behind, is the closest active batsman to this figure – perhaps closer to retirement himself than catching up.

De Villiers has also made 22 Test centuries, including two doubles, and his unbeaten 278 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi was, for a year and a bit, the highest individual score by a South African, before Amla’s famous heroics at the Oval in 2012.

His forte is perhaps in green clothing in the 50-over format, where he’s ‘s managed 9577 runs at an average of 53.5, crossing the three-figure mark 25 times, the most by a South African.

Among his centuries, the one that stands out the most is perhaps the brutal “Pink ODI” masterpiece against the West Indies in Johannesburg stands out the most, where it took him just 31 balls to get to the magic figure.

AB de Villiers the bowler

While he’s featured prominently in record books, thanks to his freakish prowess with the willow, his contributions with leather are quite understated and almost forgettable.

With only two wickets in Test cricket, both taken in the same match, the “Messi of cricket” has chipped in with the ball on rare occasions, mostly in ODIs.

De Villiers has nine victims in international cricket, with the majority of them picked up in the lead-up, and during the 2015 World Cup, co-hosted by Australia  and New Zealand.

Behind the stumps

The 34-year old is quite popular in India, where he’s been dubbed “Mr 360”, thanks to his amazing ability to direct the ball in whichever direction around the park with his bat.

The name also fits his ability to field, more than competently, at any position on the cricket field, including behind the stumps, where a decent chunk of his 463 international catches have been taken, along with with 17 stumpings.

Still fresh in everyone’s memory, is his epic catch – on the boundary this time around for RCB against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.