De Villiers falls short once again at the World Cup

MELBOURNE: South Africa captain AB de Villiers is undoubtedly the most destructive oneday batsman in world cricket. But when it comes to World Cup matches, the 181-ODI veteran has a dubious record of getting run out.

Against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, he paid the price for another piece of poor judgement to be caught short of his crease. Being honest, De Villiers cursed himself and his partner in crime, David Miller, for two run outs that cost their team the match.

“The two run outs cost us quite a lot tonight. You can’t afford to have two run outs in the top six. The top six are there to win games for you. It could have been my night or David’s night tonight, and we both sat on the side of the field not even being dismissed by a bowler, which is very disappointing,” De Villiers said after his team lost by 130 runs.

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South Africa’s total was 108, when a perfect throw by Mohit Sharma from the covers landed perfectly in front of the wicket for MS Dhoni to collect and remove the bails with De Villiers a few inches short. After him, Miller was also run out.

“Indians are always competitive in World Cups and I didn’t expect anything less from them to be honest. I expected them to be urgent, and they’ve run over in games, and especially in World Cups they lift their performance a bit. They didn’t take us by surprise, but just poor running, I guess,” accepted De Villiers. DeVilliers has played 17 World Cup matches and this is the fourth time he was not dismissed by a bowler.

In his first World Cup in 2007, he was run out in the game against Australia on 92 at Warner Park, Basseterre when the game was in bal- ance. Chasing 378, South Africa had reached a score of 160 runs in the 21st over when De Villiers was out. Australia won that match by 83 runs.

In the quarterfinal of the last World Cup, South Africa was chasing a moderate total of 221 against New Zealand in Dhaka when De Villiers was run out on 36, and thereafter the team collapsed.

SA lost by 49 runs. He was also run out in Mohali against Netherlands but SA won that match by 231 runs.