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AB keeps lifting his game

Rob Houwing’s weekly IPL South African player-watch

Cape Town – There simply seems to be no end to AB de Villiers’s thoroughly stellar 2008/09 season.

What might be termed his Indian summer -- for more reasons than one – is hardly exhibiting signs of sunset; he has simply transferred his consistent excellence for South Africa into the Indian Premier League.

As this was written, De Villiers stood fifth in the list of leading IPL run-scorers, with 271 from seven innings at 67.75 and a rollicking strike rate of 137.56.

It is hardly any coincidence that, with Sri Lankan team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan a fellow member of the 200-plus club, his Delhi Daredevils franchise topped the table after the weekend with 14 points from nine games, a point clear of Chennai Super Kings who have played a match more.

Of the 15 batsmen to have gone past 200 runs thus far, De Villiers boasts the best average by a distance – next in line are Dilshan (49.80) and Proteas colleague JP Duminy (49.50).

Not even the tournament’s runaway leader in total runs, Matthew Hayden (426), comes close in those terms – his average is 47.33.

Of course the nature of T20 cricket is such that opening batsmen are far more likely to be dismissed at some stage of each knock, thus hampering their stats when it comes to average, and De Villiers, who operates mostly either at No 3 or 4 for the Daredevils, sports three convenient not-outs.

Yet that particular trio of innings have also been arguably his most worthy to the cause.

The first “not out” was his scorching 105 off 54 balls against Chennai at Kingsmead, one of those innings fathers in the audience will proverbially tell their sons about some day.

That was an effort batting first, and without it the Daredevils would probably have lost a particularly high-scoring affair to their fellow title-hunters: they sneaked a win by nine runs.

In each of their last two matches, however, De Villiers has exhibited his ability – no less important – to “be there at the finish”.

First his unbeaten 50 off 38 balls saw the Daredevils safely past the post against Mumbai Indians in East London, and then his 40 not out on Sunday (32 deliveries) clinched victory again over the pathetic – and still infuriatingly Charl Langeveldt-less! – Kolkata Knight Riders.

It is calm, unflustered knocks like that which tend to win T20 matches, and they only add to the thick file of evidence in 2008/09 that a new maturity has agreeably enveloped De Villiers’ game – sometimes in the past inclined to include fatal doses of stubborn impulsiveness.

The really good news from a Proteas perspective is that the popular Titans pin-up is still only 80-odd days beyond his 25th birthday, so the potential to stiffen his game still further clearly exists.

He does not lack self-conviction – inevitably, some will over-hastily label that as arrogance – so when he stated a few weeks back that he wanted to become “the best batsman in the world”, the odd eyebrow was raised.

But De Villiers has done the important thing (at least thus far) when you make big statements: backed up his words with undeniable delivery.

A common denominator for him in key cricket this season, you see, is an average of 60-plus.

Just to recap, it was 60.75 in the Test series in Australia and 63.66 in the one-day internationals. In the return series on home soil he boasted an especially compelling 89.25 in the Tests and 60 on the nose in the ODIs.

And now his IPL campaign is showing similar fruits.

These figures only enhance his stated wish and now right, quite frankly, to be considered a specialist batsman henceforth, without the additional cares of wicketkeeping which would affect not only his position in batting orders but quite possibly also be to the detriment of his ever-climbing batting averages.

Besides, let us not forget that the crusty competitor Mark Boucher, 32, shows no obvious signs of losing his lustre either as a wicketkeeper or limited-overs batting factor … only on Sunday, he tried gamely to blast Bangalore Royal Challengers to victory over Mumbai Indians with a typically lively unbeaten 48, albeit in vain.
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