AB de Villiers scores first century of IPL 2009

South African batsman AB de Villiers, who is playing for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League, became the first batsman to score a century in the second edition of the tournament in Durban on Thursday. He is also the seventh batsman in the history of IPL to score a century in the Twenty20 tournament.

De Villiers remained unbeaten on 105 off 54 balls in his team's total of 189 for 5 against Chennai Super Kings. He hit five boundaries and six sixes, and shared two crucial partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan (50) for the third wicket and Manoj Tiwary (9) for the fifth wicket after the Daredevils were reduced to 8 for 2 after two overs.

While De Villiers and Dilshan added 68 runs in just over seven overs for the third wicket, the South African put on 74 runs in 35 balls for the sixth wicket with Tiwary.

De Villiers, in fact should thank his South African team-mate Albie Morkel, for dropping him when he was on 50 in the 16th over of the innings bowled by Manpreet Gony. In fact, De Villiers' innings was the perfect example of pacing an innings in Twenty20 cricket, as he initially took his time to play himself in and let Dilshan do the bulk of the scoring, and started hitting the big shots in the latter part of his innings. He scored his first 50 runs in 35 balls, but his last 55 runs came off only 19 balls!

De Villiers is on record as saying that he wants to be the best batsman in the world, and based on the form he has shown over the last 18 months as well as his splendid unbeaten century against Chennai Super Kings, he certainly appears to be on the right track to achieve his goal in the near future.

The list of hundreds scored in the IPL so far is as under:
Brendon McCullum (Kolkata Knight Riders) -- 158* (73 balls) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bangalore on April 18, 2008.
Michael Hussey (Chennai Super Kings) -- 116* (54 balls) vs Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on April 19, 2008.
Andrew Symonds (Deccan Chargers) -- 117* (53 balls) vs Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad on April 24, 2008.
Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers) -- 109* (47 balls) vs Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on April 27, 2008.
Sanath Jayasuriya (Mumbai Indians) -- 114* (48 balls) vs Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai on May 14, 2008.
Shaun Marsh (Kings XI Punjab) -- 115 (69 balls) vs Rajasthan Royals in Mohali on May 28, 2008.
AB de Villiers (Delhi Daredeveils) -- 105* (54 balls) vs Chennai Super Kings in Durban on April 23, 2009.