A B de Villiers hits a fifty

A B de Villiers hit 54 for South Africa against Sri Lanka. No-one else passed fifty, so we're singling him out.

A lot of people are pretty turned off by the low scores in this Champions' Trophy, but we're finding it refreshing. Quite often there'll be one batsmen who makes a score and the remainder won't get out of single figures. Are the batsmen who prosper better-equipped? Maybe there's a wealth of flat-track bullies in international cricket these days due to the better pitches. Perhaps they're all being found out in more testing conditions.

Either way, certain batsmen are adapting and the majority aren't. A B de Villiers is a canny sort of batsman and he did enough yesterday. He's been opener, wicketkeeper and batted just about everywhere for South Africa. He's clearly a flexible sort of a bloke and that's doubtless his strength in testing conditions.

AB de Villiers finds his feet

Both in terms of his World Cup performances and literally too after a few bouts of debilitating cramp during his colossal innings of 146 off 130 balls against the West Indies yesterday. We say 'debilitating', but it only seemed to spur him on. Maybe 'invigorating cramp' would be a better phrase.

AB de Villiers is a talented batsman. He first appeared when England toured South Africa a couple of years ago. He acquitted himself reasonably despite some whimsical alterations to the batting order during that series. He opened; he batted in the middle order; he batted at seven; and if we're not mistaken, he actually kept wicket as well.

These days he's an opener and at 23, he'll be around for a good long while, by the looks of it.

We're using that picture on the right because he looks like a dork and we like pictures where people look like dorks - whoever they are. It also vaguely hints at how he's an all-round sportsman who was good at tennis and various other sports which are nowhere near as good as cricket.

He also seems to be a throwback to that era when South African cricketers always erred towards the ginger.