AB on the mend after illness
RCB relieved as SA legend set to return
AB de Villiers’ Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign has been disrupted by illness, but he is expected back in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (BCB) black and red for a crucial clash against Chennai Super Kings in Pune today.
RCB must win all of their remaining six matches to retain realistic hopes of reaching the playoffs.
De Villiers‚ who has been ruled out of his team’s last two games‚ is central to that cause.
“The last four days have been a blur‚” he wrote in his Times of India column yesterday.
“I have been suffering from severe viral flu‚ one of the most debilitating illnesses I have ever experienced.
“Aside from one visit to the hospital‚ I have barely left my hotel room. Sleep has been almost impossible‚ and the migraine headaches have been extreme.
“The good news is that my condition is now improving every day and‚ as the aches ease and I start to get some proper sleep‚ we are very hopeful that I will be available for selection to play [on Saturday].”
De Villiers wrote that he was able to keep an eye on RCB’s performance on television during his absence.
And he did mean an eye: “Most of the time it was only possible to watch with one eye open because of the throbbing pain in my head.”
Despite having had three fewer innings than some players‚ De Villiers is still among the tournament’s top 10 leading run-scorers.
He has three half-centuries and only seven players have a higher score than the unbeaten 90 he hit off 39 balls against Delhi Daredevils in Bangalore on April 21.
De Villiers’s RCB teammate‚ Quinton de Kock‚ is the next most successful South Africa batsman at the tournament, with a modest 201 runs in eight innings.
Faf du Plessis has had only three innings for Chennai Super Kings and scored 71 runs.
Hashim Amla’s half an English summer is going well enough‚ what with him scoring 200 runs in five innings for first division side Hampshire.
That puts Amla fourth on the runscoring charts. —