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'I Got Really Sick In My Room': De Villiers Recalls How He Battled Sickness During His Majestic 162 vs WI In 2015 WC

image-ljhwgiv9AB de Villiers during his majestic 162* vs WI [Image- Twitter]

Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers was in the form of his life at the 2015 World Cup, painting every Australian ground with his 360-degree strokeplay.

His best knock undeniably came against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he pulverized the likes of Jason Holder into pieces.

The former skipper hammered 17 fours and 8 monstrous sixes to rack up a 66-ball 162* to bat the West Indies out of the contest.

De Villiers recently recounted that knock, while also revealing that he was actually very sick leading into the game.

In Jio Cinema's 'Home of Heroes', the champion South African and RCB batsman revealed that he took multiple injections on the eve of the match, and at one stage, he even thought that he may die.

"I’ll give you one more example of that. Sydney Cricket Ground, 2015. We played a World Cup game against the West Indies. And I was very nervous, very fired up. It’s a must win for us. But 3:00 that morning, I got really sick in my room, and I got injections and all sorts of stuff. I didn’t sleep. I arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground and I told the coach, listen, I don’t think I can warm up, I’m just going to take a nap,"


"I remember standing there facing my first ball and I was like, I don’t care if I get out there, I’m just going to see the ball and just like move slowly. Be in my mode, you know? And it was incredible how in such slow motion everything happened that day. Seeing the ball bigger, I was half asleep. Looking at the sun just standing there going like, oh, this game is actually so enjoyable, so easy, so slow and it’s so difficult to get into that zone. In that zone, it’s so enjoyable," De Villiers said.

De Villiers' whirlwind display helped South Africa thump the Windies by 257 runs and keep their hopes alive in the competition.

ABD went on to have a memorable WC campaign as he racked up 482 runs in 7 innings @ 96.40/144.31 with 4 50+ scores, including the majestic ton vs WI.