South Africa superstar crashes through the 9000 run barrier, erasing Ganguly's name from the record books
De Villiers smashes another ODI record
The name 'AB de Villiers' has been etched once again into the ODI record books, this time in the category of 'fastest to 9000 runs'.
De Villiers reached the mark with a cracking pull shot for four from Lockie Ferguson shortly after arriving at the crease during South Africa's innings against New Zealand in the third ODI in Wellington today.
In doing so, the 33-year-old knocked off former India captain Sourav Ganguly's record of 228 innings, getting to the milestone in 205 innings - a staggering 23 fewer than Ganguly.
De Villiers began the tour of New Zealand needing 87 to hit 9000 and promptly put together an unbeaten 37 in the series opener in Hamilton, hitting the winning runs to take his side to a one-nil lead.
The unbeaten knock took his ODI average in New Zealand to a remarkable 152 from 12 innings, with a century and four fifties.
In the second match at Hagley Oval in Christchurch he made 45, his career average at one point ticking past 54 before ending the innings at 53.86 – still the highest of any batsman to have played 50-plus matches.
And of the 18 ODI batsmen in the '9000 Club', de Villiers also boasts the best strike-rate - an incredible 99.94.
Perhaps the only question regarding de Villiers' new record is whether it can withstand the phenomenal run-scoring feats of teammate Hashim Amla and India captain Virat Kohli.
Kohli continues to smash every 'fastest to' 1000-run milestone as he forges arguably the greatest ODI batting career of them all, only to see Amla erase his name from the record books each and every time.
Currently, Amla is the fastest batsman to 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 ODI runs and is on track to shatter Kohli's record for the fastest to 7000.
Kohli's ODI runs tally is 7755 from 171 innings, meaning he needs to score 245 runs in his next 10 innings to break the current 8000 run mark of 182 innings – held by none other than de Villiers.
With an ODI average of 53.11, that would appear a mere formality, paving the way for him to then hunt down de Villiers' latest mark.