AB de Villiers’ top five Test knocks

AB de Villiers retired from international cricket on 23 May 2018, ending a 14-year career in which he played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is for South Africa. In Tests he scored 8,765 runs at 50.66 with 22 hundreds. That still makes him South Africa’s fourth-highest Test run-scorer, behind Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith.

He is best remembered for white-ball fireworks: his 31-ball ODI hundred against West Indies in January 2015 is still the fastest ever, and his 16-ball fifty in the same innings is still the joint fastest. But his Test career was just as remarkable, and several of his best innings were about survival rather than speed. Here are five of ‘Mr 360’s’ finest Test knocks.

106* vs Australia, Perth (December 2008)

South Africa arrived in Australia in strong form, but Australia were still the top Test side and had rarely been beaten at home. At the WACA, Australia made 375 and bowled South Africa out for 281, with Mitchell Johnson taking 8 for 61. Set 414 to win, South Africa were given little chance.

De Villiers made 106 not out off 186 balls, and finished the chase with an unbroken stand of 111 for the fifth wicket with debutant JP Duminy. South Africa reached 414 for 4 and won by six wickets. It remains the second-highest successful run chase in Test history, behind West Indies’ 418 for 7 against Australia in 2003, and the highest ever made to beat Australia in Australia. De Villiers was named player of the match.

278* vs Pakistan, Abu Dhabi (November 2010)

After a drawn first Test in Dubai, de Villiers produced the biggest innings of his career in the second. He made 278 not out off 418 balls, with 23 fours and six sixes, beating Graeme Smith’s 277 to set a new South African Test record.

South Africa declared on 584 for 9, leaving de Villiers short of a triple hundred. Pakistan replied with 434, and in the second innings Misbah-ul-Haq’s unbeaten 58 saw them to a draw.

The record did not last long. Hashim Amla’s 311 not out at The Oval in 2012 passed it, and Wiaan Mulder’s 367 not out against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in July 2025 set a new mark. De Villiers’s 278* is now the third-highest Test score by a South African.

33 vs Australia, Adelaide (November 2012)

This is the least glamorous score on the list and one of his greatest innings. Australia made 550, with Michael Clarke scoring 230, and South Africa trailed by 162 after the first innings. Australia then declared to set a target of 430.

De Villiers batted for 220 balls and more than four hours for 33, without hitting a single boundary, a strike rate of 15. He and debutant Faf du Plessis, who made 110 not out, put on 89 together. De Villiers was eventually bowled, but South Africa finished on 248 for 8 to save the match. They went on to win the series 1-0 in Perth.

83 vs New Zealand, Hamilton (March 2012)

New Zealand were bowled out for 185 at Seddon Park, but Mark Gillespie’s 5 for 59 kept South Africa’s reply in check. De Villiers held the innings together with 83 off 133 balls, the top score of the match. That took South Africa to 253 and a first-innings lead of 68.

Vernon Philander then took 6 for 44 as New Zealand were bowled out for 168, and South Africa knocked off the runs to win by nine wickets.

126* vs Australia, Port Elizabeth (March 2018)

De Villiers had stepped away from Test cricket for nearly two years after January 2016. He returned against Zimbabwe at Port Elizabeth on 26 December 2017 and then helped South Africa beat India 2-1. When Australia won the first Test of their tour in Durban, South Africa needed a response.

After Kagiso Rabada’s 5 for 96 bowled Australia out for 243, de Villiers made 126 not out off 146 balls, with 20 fours and a six, as South Africa reached 382. Rabada took 6 for 54 in the second innings, 11 wickets in the match, and South Africa won by six wickets, de Villiers adding 28 in the chase. It was his 22nd and last Test hundred. South Africa went on to win the series 3-1.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Gianluigi Guercia