AB de Villiers smashes his fastest T20I fifty in 2nd match vs England as South Africa win by 9 wickets

AB de Villiers scored 71 off just 29 balls and got to his fifty in only 21 deliveries.

South Africa have won the second Twenty20 international of the two-match series with some exceptional fireworks from AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla. They have made a clean sweep of the series after having won the first T20I as well. Chasing a target of 171, South Africa got off to a flyer with de Villiers taking apart Reece Topley and Chris Jordan. De Villiers got to his half century in just 21 balls which was also his fastest fifty in T20I cricket. Hashim Amla complemented him brilliantly with some elegant batting display. He too scored at a brisk rate and some of his shots proved why he is one of the best batters to have emerged in the last decade.  His target was Ben Stokes at the start although he took on other bowlers later as well. He struck a six and then two back-to-back boundaries off Stokes. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: South Africa vs England 2015-16, 2nd T20I at Johannesburg

Amla remained unbeaten on 69 having faced only 38 balls. He played some excellent shots in his innings but sometimes exceptional innings overshadow some outstanding performances in cricket. Amla was terrific but de Villiers simply epic. De Villiers bagged Player of the Match award whereas Imran Tahir was named Player of the Series.  In the first innings, England riding on Jos Buttler’s 54 off 28 odd balls were cruising along pretty well till the 16th over as they were batting on 150 for the loss of just three wickets. They then suffered a batting collapse and were bowled out for 171 with two balls remaining.

Brief Scores:

England 171  (Eoin Morgan 38 (23), Jos Buttler 54 (28); Kyle Abbott3 for 26, Imran Tahir 1 for 25 ) lose to South Africa 172/1 in 14.4 overs (AB de Villiers 71(29), Hashim Amla 69(38)*; Adil Rashid 1 for 30) by 9 wickets

Match gallery here

(Bhaskar Narayan is a reporter at CricketCountry and Criclife. He passionately follows the game and is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. His Twitter handle is @Cricopathy)

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