On this day in 2009, former Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) batsman AB de Villiers had struck his maiden T20 century during the ninth match of the second season of the Indian Premier League against Chennai Super Kings in Durban.
After the then Delhi captain Virender Sehwag won the toss and opted to bat, de Villiers came in to bat at No. 3 in the first over as opening batsman Gautam Gambhir (0) was dismissed on the first ball itself.
It was on the second delivery of the fourth over when de Villiers opened his arms for the first time in the form of a six off Chennai pacer Manpreet Singh Gony. de Villiers then played second fiddle to Tillakaratne Dilshan (50), who scored his maiden IPL half-century in a brisk 68-run stand for the second wicket.
Ab de Villiers impressive ton
De Villiers, then 25, took onus on himself once Delhi lost wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik (18) in the 18th over. It was on the first delivery of the 16th over that de Villiers ran a couple of runs off Gony to complete his half-century.
Also read : AB De Villiers has Been Selected as the Greatest IPL Batsman of all Time Over Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni
When CSK all-rounder Albie Morkel dropped a sitter at long-on on the following delivery, de Villiers made sure that he punished the opposition on the back of an onslaught which saw him converting his half-century into a century in only 15 balls.
AB de Villiers scored maiden T20 century
In the 17th and 18th over, de Villiers hit boundaries off Morkel and Gony but it was in the penultimate over that the right-hand batsman scored a couple of fours and sixes off Super Kings all-rounder Andrew Flintoff to reach the three-figure mark for the first time in the tournament.
Having scored 105* (54) with the help of five fours and six sixes, de Villiers propelled Delhi to 189/5 in 20 overs. While Chennai got off to a quickfire start due to opening batsman Matthew Hayden’s (57) fourth IPL half-century, economical spells from Pradeep Sangwan (4-0-28-3) and Daniel Vettori (4-0-29-2) restricted them to 180/9 in 20 overs.
De Villiers, who has registered three IPL centuries till date, had scored 671 runs in 29 IPL matches for Delhi at an average of 31.95 and a strike rate of 117.31. Apart from his century, he had also scored three half-centuries for DD before joining Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2011.
In addition to his maiden T20 century at Kingsmead, de Villiers has scored 267 runs in 10 T20s at the venue at an average of 33.38 and a strike rate of 156.14.
