AB de Villiers is only human and we can get him out four more times in the series: Mitchell Starc

AB de Villiers' unbeaten 126 against Australia in the second Test at St George's Park was his sixth hundred against the Kangaroos in the longer format.

AB de Villiers scored an unbeaten 126 in the second Test. (AP)

AB de Villiers’ unbeaten 126 against Australia in the second Test at St George’s Park was his sixth hundred against the Kangaroos in the longer format. It turned out to be a decisive knock as the Proteas won the match to level the series at 1-1. De Villiers’ record against Australia is anything but impressive and in the ongoing series he is proving to be a thorn in the Aussie side. Such is his impact that even seamer Mitchell Starc was instructed to take a negative approach to de Villiers during knock. Revealing that he wasn’t exactly happy to do so, Starc went on to say that de Villiers is only human and will make mistakes in the Test series.

Reflecting on his tactic, Starc said, “I can’t say I was too happy with that either. “Look, if the captain tells me to do something I’m going to do it, aren’t I? He seems to be able to play a couple of different shots to the same length ball, so your margin for error is a lot less to someone like him.”

“But he’s only human, so he’s going to make mistakes and you’re going to be able to get him out and people have before in the past and I’m pretty confident in our bowling attack. So there’s no doubt we can get him out four more times in the series,” he added.

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“I think you’ve got to think outside the box a lot more with him. A good ball’s still a good ball to any batter in world cricket, it’s just bowling them more consistently, changing the field a little bit and maybe cutting off a couple of scoring areas for him as well. I think that’s one thing we didn’t do well enough to him in the first innings [in Port Elizabeth], we didn’t bowl enough good balls to him,” he further added.

“He’s allowed to play good cricket shots, but I think we didn’t bowl that really good ball consistently enough to him to build a bit of extra pressure on him and make him play the false shot. It’s something we’ve spoken about as a bowling group and as a team moving forward in this series and hopefully that starts in Cape Town and we can get him out fairly cheaply,” Starc explained.

Stating that Australia are pretty comfortable against the rest of their batting line-up Starc said, “I think we showed in the first Test how quickly we can go through them. He was a mainstay in the first innings of that first Test as well and again in the second Test, so they rely heavily on him and there’s been a few little cameos around him.”

“He’s a fantastic batter, there’s no doubt about that and he showed again in the first innings why he’s one of the best in the world. We’ve had some lengthy discussions about some plans to him, things we might have to change, but he’s only human and going forward there’s no doubt we can get him out,” he concluded by saying.

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