Published: Sep 07, 2014, 06:15 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 21, 2014, 11:32 PM (IST)
Sep 7, 2014
South African skipper AB de Villiers has apologised to team mate Faf du Plessis for costing him a chance to achieve a unique feat in the final against Australia of the triangular series in Harare on Saturday.
Du Plessis was on the verge of becoming the first ever player in the history of One-Day International (ODIs) cricket to score four centuries in a tournament, including the World Cups. He would have also become the sixth player to score three consecutive ODI hundreds.
South Africa did not have much difficulty in chasing the 218-run target and were at 200 for the loss of three wickets when du Plessis was on 92. De Villiers then went on to smash three consecutive fours to take South Africa within six runs of the target’s reach and reach his 38th ODI half-century.
Du Plessis was required to hit successive boundaries to get to three-figure mark aside from bringing the match to a close. He despatched the first delivery of Mitchell Johnson‘s over towards the boundary ropes with ease. On the fourth delivery, he looked to smash the ball over mid-on, but managed to guide the ball towards James Faulkner‘s hands in the end.
According to Cricket Australia, de Villiers apologised in the post-match press conference for depriving du Plessis of an opportunity to enter the record books. “I sort of lost track of where he was at to be very honest with you. I was just watching the scoreboard and counting down every run,”de Villiers was quoted as saying at the post-match press conference.
“I was just watching the scoreboard and counting down every run. “In that last over when Faffy was in the 90s he reminded me and said ‘listen, I’m close to my hundred here bud’. I said ‘oh shit, sorry I forgot about that’.
“And we tried our best to get him to that milestone but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. “If I could have that time over I would have allowed him to get to that century a little bit easier. But he understands.”
Complete coverage of Zimbabwe Tri-Series 2014
