The venue was Abu Dhabi, and the Pakistan cricket team was reeling from the October 2010 spot-fixing scandal. Still not used to the UAE and perhaps mildly distrustful of their step-in Captain Captain Misbah ul Haq, Pakistan was up against South Africa, the first team they were playing since that fateful series in England.
Things were still very much uncertain around whether the UAE would work out for Pakistan as an alternative home ground. But as the series would go on to show, it would end up being the perfect home for the men in green.
The first test of the series had been a draw. Pakistan had been primed to lose for much of the game until a mammoth fourth innings stand between Younis Khan and Misbah ul Haq. The 186 run partnership was to be the first of many and would set the tone for Pakistani cricket as it shifted to the desert. Despite the early jitters, the UAE would prove an ideal homeground. Significant support from expats combined with dusty wickets made for Pakistan’s sensation spinners meant cleansweeps against the likes of Australia, England, New Zealand and all the other top ranked cricket teams.
At the Sheikh Zayd stadium and Sharjah, Pakistan went on to make the best of the best suffer under the calm hand of Misbah ul Haq. There were flashes from the opposition, quickfire 200s come to mind from Brendon McCullum right on the back of Pakistan whitewashing Australia. There was also the regal 268 by Alaistar Cook in 2015. While the innings gave the team and their fans much strife – such monumental innings were sorely missed back home in Pakistan. Because while cricket fans have been unable to see their own heroes in action, they have also missed out on witnessing some of the best players the rest of the world has to offer.
None so much, perhaps, as AB de Villiers. In only the second game of that 2010 series, de Villiers made the highest test score for a South African, beating the record of his Captain Graeme Smith by a single run and ending his innings on 278. Even after an early South African collapse at the hands of debutant Tanveer Ahmad, de Villiers made the Abu Dhabi pitch his own and seemed unstoppable – and indeed, he remained unbeaten in the innings. Had South Africa had the time, he probably would have gone on to score a 300 and perhaps more seeing the sort of form he was in.
The match ended up being a draw. Perhaps even because Graeme Smith wanted to give him the time to break his own record, buying Pakistan a couple f sessions and saving face for them. But even though the draw was likened to a victory for Pakistan, the true winner was AB de Villiers and anyone that got to witness him at his finest.
De Villiers has not played much against Pakistan, only 12 test matches, 32 ODIs, and 10 T20s. But Pakistan seems to be an opposition he has enjoyed playing against. In the 12 test matches he played against Pakistan, he scored 1121 runs at an average of 65.41 – 15 runs higher than his career average. Four of his 22 centuries in test matches came against Pakistan and he also has three half centuries to his name against Pakistan in tests. Of these 12 games, de Villiers also played two in Pakistan in a rather forgettable series, but he did score a handsome 77 in Lahore on what was Inzamam ul Haq’s final test match. Four of the 12 games were in the UAE and the last 6 were at home in South Africa where he scored two centuries and a handful of 50s in six games against Pakistan.
In ODIs he made 1423 runs against Pakistan at an average of nearly 60 with a strike rate of over 90. He top scored with 128 and made two other centuries, giving Pakistan serious strife when they went to South Africa where him and Hashim Amla bullied the Pakistan bowling into submission in their distinctive pink kits in 2013. He also played five games against Pakistan which were forgettable except for a sublime 103 in Lahore in 2007 in a game that South Africa won by 45 runs – the century was only the third of de Villiers’ career.
In T20s he has not fared particularly well against Pakistan, making only a single half century in his eight games at an average just under 20. Perhaps that might just encourage him to accept the recent offer made by the Quetta Gladiators to come play for them in the PSL, and make his mark on the T20 format as well.
