Man of Steel

AB DE VILLIERS

With records being broken almost every other day in the World Cup, AB de Villiers was expected to join the bandwagon soon; and so he did. With 15 overs to go South Africa were poised around the 180-mark with seven wickets in hand yesterday. At that point they would have been thinking of something around 320, but that's when de Villiers stepped into the picture. It's difficult to name one stroke that he doesn't have in his armoury. From the powerful straight drives and the cross-batted slaps to his switch-hits and his trademark pull towards fine-leg, where he dances outside the off-stump to give a base-ball like thump, they were all put into action yesterday. 162 off 66; all the West Indies could was hold their ground and applaud.