The Superhero of the Proteans: Abraham Benjamin de Villiers

The superman of South Africa has shown his magic once again at the grandest stage of cricket. The innings de Villiers played, against West Indies, does not surprise me at all as a follower of cricket. The reason being that this kind of show is pretty much expected from him now.

There have also been tweets stating that ABD shouldn’t even be allowed to play with human baings as it would be unfair for the bowlers.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>Wow – <a href=”https://twitter.com/ABdeVilliers17″>@ABdeVilliers17</a> – holy bleksim! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreakShow?src=hash”>#FreakShow</a></p>&mdash; Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) <a href=”https://twitter.com/KP24/status/571214324326375424″>February 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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There is a preferred area of stroke making of every batsman in international cricket and majority of their runs are in that region. However, if you have a look at ABD’s wagon wheel, you won’t be able to make out his relatively favoured area.

Truly the talent that the man possess is something unreal. The key behind his successful batting is majorly his hand-eye co-ordination and the cricketing mind he possess. He exactly knows where the fielders would be and where the bowler is going to ball and thereby manages to get into position early.

His batting arsenal consists of every possible cricketing stroke: be it textbook cover drives or the very unorthodox switch hits. His stillness when meeting the ball and his movement in the crease are another key elements to his batting style. He gets deep inside the crease and converts potential yorkers into half – volleys.

To give him the title ‘Superman’ also seems like an understatement for this man considering the facts about him:

* Shortlisted for South African football and hockey squad.

* South African junior Rugby captain.

* 6 school swimming records.

* National U-19 Badminton champion.

* Fastest 100 metres timming in South Africa juniors. South Africa’s Junior Davis Cup Team of tennis.

And if this wasn’t enough, this man has also won a national medal from Mandela for a science project.

2014 wasn’t really one of his best years with an aggregate score of 631 runs at an average of 48.53, which is pretty ordinary with respect to his standards.  However he  has made it clear that it won’t be the same case in 2015 with some blistering knocks already.

Many critics however, consider this is South Africa’s best shot at the World cup and De Villiers would be vital to their chances.

Just as we convince ourselves that there’s nothing more left he could surprise us with, he manages to reach over his greatest extent to present us with something even bigger and better.