AB de Villiers: An online journalist’s nightmare
AB de Villiers: An online journalist’s nightmare
As AB de Villiers ripped apart the West Indies attack and record books at Johannesburg, newsrooms went into frantic action without any breathing space after the India vs Australia encounter at Melbourne. A hapless Shiamak Unwalla narrates the woes caused by cricket ogres like de Villiers to the online cricket journalist.
It was a big day in the news room; India were playing Australia in the second match of the tri-series at Melbourne in a format where they actually have a good chance of emerging victorious. The day had started off in a not-too-bad way, what with Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina — failures of the Test series — taking India to 268.
There was a vague awareness of another match going on simultaneously, but another set of journalists were covering it. There were the occasional ooohs and aaahs, and the usual chatter regarding Hashim Amla’s class filtered through. But there was a captivating game going on at this end.
India, after looking like they would lose with a couple of overs to spare, suddenly found themselves in a winnable position. James Faulkner — not for the first time — soon put that hope to rest. The match was over; Australia had won with an over to spare, after all. It was a superb finish to a fascinating match.
And then, as the euphoria that always follows a close match subsided, someone said, “that’s AB’s fifty.” It took a moment to process. Hadn’t the man just walked in 15 minutes ago? How many balls had he even faced? After a moment of awed inactivity, there was a flurry of action:
“Someone tweet, this is the fastest 50 in ODI history!”
“Put up a special report, quick. Make sure you use all the keywords, otherwise the SEO team will be after us!”
“I’ll do a quick stats report.”
Meanwhile, AB de Villiers continued on his merry way. Before the special report on his fastest 50 could be published, he was already in his 80s, and a special report on a possible fastest 100 was in the works.
Then, suddenly he was in his 90s. Surely he would do this quickly enough to ensure our report gets delayed? But 92 became 98, and then 104, in the space of three balls. The special report on the fastest 50 was less than 10 minutes old.
“Don’t clap, tweet! This is the fastest 100 in ODI history!”
“Put up a special report, quick. Make sure you use all the keywords!”
“I’ll do another stats report. No, I will do a combined one.”
There was no time to applaud, no time to process the mind-numbing carnage that was being witnessed, no time for a quick visit to the restroom. By the time we were ransacking all possible records he had raced through the 130s and 140s.
AB de Villiers. A nightmare for an online journalist!
But then, again, at least he had not opened batting!
AB de Villiers’ fastest ODI century: In Photos
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(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and cricket fanatic. You can follow him on Twitter @ShiamakUnwalla)