Cricket greats salute AB

[caption id="attachment_64112" align="alignright" width="202"] RUN MACHINE: Proteas captain AB de Villiers celebrates his record century yesterday -[/caption]

Red-Letter days do not ordinarily come in pink but it was that kind of day at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg yesterday.

It was a day in which the Proteas’ batting simply knew no boundaries as they went one better than the remarkable 438 runs they accumulated at the same ground in a one-day international against Australia nine seasons ago.

Those memories were consigned to the past as AB de Villiers and Company re-enacted an innings almost in its entirety for a highlights package.

The cricket world was abuzz yesterday as it marvelled at De Villiers’s record-breaking innings.

He needed just 31 balls to reach his 100, the fastest in ODI history, having earlier reached his 50 off 16 deliveries.

“I’ve been saying for the last 30 years that Viv Richards has to be the best batsman of all time – even better than Sir Don Bradman in my book – but I’m going to have to reassess because this guy is something extraordinary,” Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi, who is third in the list of fastest ODI centuries – hitting 100 off 37 balls against Sri Lanka in 1996, said.

-Liam del Carme