AB de Villiers, one of the greatest Modern Day Batter the cricketing world saw, has today announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He had retired from international cricket in 2018, playing for RCB thereafter for 3 editions of IPL. RCB fans never got the privilege to give him a farewell match.
As a tribute to ABD, we bring to you one of his finest innings. It came at the 2015 World Cup against the Carribean team, West Indies. Scroll down if you want to watch only the video.
South Africa vs West Indies, 2nd ODI, Johannesburg, Jan 18 2015, West Indies tour of South Africa
Match Result: South Africa won by 148 runs
Player of the Match: AB de Villiers
Jason Holder | West Indies captain: “Tough game, AB took it away from us. We weren’t doing too badly in the middle overs but he took it away from us. I thought we could have nailed our yorkers better. A lot of the seniors guys have helped me out these that two games and we can move forward. It was commendable the way Sulieman bowled today, hats off to him. Credit to the two guys who did well with the bat, that’s something to work with. We just need to put this behind us.”
AB De Villiers | Man of the Match: “Lots of credit to Rilee and Hash up front, it allowed myself to free up. It was always going to be a lot of aggressive batting around Hash. He’s a world class batsman, he’s making it look easy and taking the pressure off us. I had a lot of time to warm up in the changing room, thinking about how I was playing. I actually wanted David Miller to go in but Russell made a great call, he told me to go in. I played my knock even before I came out to bat, I really wanted to go today. I was on 92 when I knew the record was close and I wasn’t going to take singles!”
AB de Villiers Retirement speech:
Today, I’m going to be making a big announcement, a very emotional announcement: that I’m finished with all formats and all cricket, all around. I do have a smile on my face because I feel I am making the right decision, but obviously deep in my heart I’m incredibly sad.
There are lots of emotions and thoughts going through my mind, of all the years of playing cricket. There are lots of mixed emotions. Things happened very quickly in the last month or so. It’s been on my mind for a quite a bit. I finally just made the decision that it’s time for me to really, truthfully priortise family time and to be just really the best version of myself as much as I can at home.
No, I’m not going to go anywhere and I am going to be an RCB-ian for life. Every single person in the RCB set-up has become family to me. I mean we all have spent a lot of time together, some people come and some go, but that RCB franchise and the spirit and the love that we have for each other will always remain.
I have an incredible time over there. I know we haven’t won a trophy, but I truly believe there are plenty more to come in the future. Hopefully I have played my role with Virat and some of the other players who have played a huge role in getting our culture set for the future – may be that has played its role for us to win many trophies in the future. And hopefully I will be part of some of that, we’ll see what happens.
But, yes, RCB has changed my life. I think I have become half Indian over the years and I am very proud of that. I absolutely have loved every single second of my journey and I have fallen in love with India as well. That’s never going to change – the day I’m not here on the earth anymore I will be half-Indian, half-South African.”
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