AB stars in BBL debut to steer Heat to victory

Cape Town - Former Proteas star batsman AB de Villiers shined in his Big Bash League (BBL) debut and helped the Brisbane Heat to victory at the Gabba on Tuesday.

De Villiers scored a quick-fire 40 runs off 31 balls - including 5 fours - before falling to Australian Liam O'Connor as they Heat won by seven wickets against the Adelaide Strikers.

The South African also took two catches for the Heat as Australia's James Pattinson took 5/33 to restrict the Strikers to 110.

Earlier in the day, De Villiers received his Brisbane Heat cap from former Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.

De Villiers arrived in Brisbane over the weekend and met his Heat team-mates at the training-session on Monday.

The 35-year-old revealed prior to the match on Tuesday that he is coming into the competition in "some of the best form of my career".

This win saw the Heat move up to fourth in the BBL standings after 5 wins and 4 losses to date.

The Heat's next encounter will be against the Adelaide Strikers again but this time away on Friday (06:40 SA time).

- Compiled by Lynn Butler

Welcome to the Heat Family @ABdeVilliers17 ??

Cap presented by @RoySymonds63.#WelcomeABD #BringTheHeat #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/g1H6Rky3H2

— Brisbane Heat (@HeatBBL) January 14, 2020