Times Media
TELFORD VICE, Melbourne
“TO who am I saying happy birthday,” Farhaan Behardien asked with an anguished look on his face as he jerked his head upward from the physiotherapist’s table. “How old is he now - 30 or 31?”
AB de Villiers turned 31 on Tuesday, and Behardien’s contribution to a team video posted on social media channels included him singing his congratulations to his captain despite the obvious discomfort caused by the treatment for his stiff back, which has since eased.
Kyle Abbott also sang Happy Birthday to the skipper - while wearing a shower cap and nothing else besides a layer of soap suds on his exposed torso. Dale Steyn offered his good wishes while reclining at a hairdresser’s basin.
Faf du Plessis - who unlike his teammates was in good health, fully clothed and nowhere near a beauty parlour - said he would, “Just like to congratulate my very good good friend AB on his 31st victory.”
Except that he stumbled several times over the last word, and eventually replaced it with “birthday”. A rumour that someone called “Fluff” du Plessis would henceforth bat at No. 3 for SA at the World Cup could not be confirmed.
Slightly more seriously, De Villiers’ averages 104.86 in the one-day internationals he has batted in closest to his birthday before this year. He played the first of the 11 innings in 2005, and in 2013 he had two knocks equidistant from the big day because he did not bat in two other games closer to February 17.
In eight innings, he has scored at least 50 - and three times he has gone on to a century.
SA have won nine of the matches, seven times when batting second. The ODI nearest De Villiers’ birthday last year, against India at Centurion, was washed out. But not before he scored 109.
That, surely, is a good omen for SA ahead of their important clash against MS Dhoni’s men in Melbourne on Sunday. The fact that De Villiers made 107 not out seven days after his birthday at the 2011 World Cup, against West Indies in Delhi, must also count for something.
Perhaps, or perhaps not: SA’s only loss in the 11 games was suffered in 2010, when they went down by one run. To who? That’s right, to India ...
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