Former South African batter AB de Villiers has opened up on how he managed to hit a high full toss from Mohammed Shami during the Indian Premier League 2019 edition for a remarkable one-handed six.
De Villiers candidly admitted that he had no idea of how he pulled off the stroke, adding that all he wanted to ensure was that the ball didn’t hit his body, as that would have hurt him badly.
Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) by 17 runs in the 42nd game of IPL 2019 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. RCB posted 202-4 batting first, with De Villiers hammering a superb 82* off 44.
In the 19th over of the innings, the Proteas legend slammed Shami for three consecutive sixes, one of them off an awkwardly high full toss. In a Q&A session on his YouTube channel, De Villiers was asked about how he pulled off that stroke.
“I very clearly remember that cleared the stadium and went into Cubbon Park. It’s crazy because it was one of the biggest sixes I have hit in my life. It was actually just a reaction. I literally tried to stop the ball from not hitting me.
“It was heading into a dangerous area around the throat. That could have been very painful if I had missed that. My mind just told me, whatever you do, make sure the ball hits the bat and not your body,” he replied.
De Villiers struck three fours and seven sixes in his splendid knock, while Parthiv Patel (43 off 24) and Marcus Stoinis (46* off 34) also made handy contributions.
“I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt” – De Villiers on whether Shami bowled high full toss on purpose
Elaborating on the awkward delivery from Shami, De Villiers did not reckon the Indian pacer did it on purpose, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
“I can’t tell you why it went so far. Shami is quite fast, bowls around 140 kph.
“I don’t know if it was on purpose or not. I know Shami quite well. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I was really happy with that six. It was a very enjoyable knock,” he added.
Chasing 203, Punjab were restricted to 185-7 as Umesh Yadav claimed 3-36 and Navdeep Saini 2-33.