VIDEO | AB de Villiers’ untimely stumble costs him his wicket

After dominating India in the Test series, if not in any of the other limited-overs format, earlier this year, the Proteas fielded a confident side against the Aussies with the likes of Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, de Villiers all returning to the squad. After being thrashed by India in the ODIs and T20Is, de Villiers’ presence was greatly felt by South Africa as his unbeaten knock of 71 runs amidst a flurry of dismissals helped the hosts reduce the lead.

However, the incident in question happened on the fourth day of the Test after South Africa could only add 227 more runs to their tally, leaving South Africa to chase a target of 417 over two days. It was the time when the hosts needed de Villiers the most and the familiar early collapse of Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla only furthered it up fast.

But, as luck would have it, the versatile batsman had only faced one ball before calamity struck. Aiden Markram was playing a patient innings after the team being reduced to 39/2 and had seen off Nathan Lyon’s good length ball towards backward square leg at David Warner’s hands. There was little chance of a run and as de Villiers attempted, he was rightly sent back by Markram.

However, seeing that he was well distant from his non-striker’s crease, Warner was quick to throw it back to Lyon who didn’t fail to dismantle the stumps. Given that de Villiers is one of the fittest players in the squad he had a good chance of covering the crease, but to his misfortune, he stumbled as soon as he turned around to run back. In the end, his desperate dive wasn’t enough.

With the hosts already 117/4 in the 36th over, they are most probably looking at a first match defeat in the four-match series.