AB de Villiers’ brilliance lights up PSL

De Villiers’ teamed up with one-time South Africa team-mate David Wiese – who scored an equally-impressive 20-ball 45* – to hunt down a mammoth target of 201 with the final delivery of the second innings.

Wiese and de Villiers added 96 runs for the fifth wicket. A majority of those runs came in the death overs, with the two launching a six each off Andre Russell in the all-important penultimate over to bring the equation down to nine runs off the final over.

That came down to four required off the final ball, and Wiese smashed Dan Christian for six to complete a stunning chase.

It was a trademark de Villiers knock. The moment that summed up his brilliance was when he reverse-scooped a full toss from Junaid Khan – spread well outside off – over the third-man fence.

"I am pleased for my team," said de Villiers, the Lahore captain, after the match. “I took my time and Wiese took pressure off me. It was a nice partnership. We were under pressure after ten overs, but we showed a great attitude.”

De Villiers later took to Twitter to describe just how much he enjoyed the outing, and said his choice for the Player of the Match award was Wiese.

James Vince’s 41-ball 84, along with Umar Siddiq’s 38-ball 53, had earlier helped Multan lord over the Lahore bowlers, and they were in with a good chance of victory when Junaid Khan’s three wickets had helped reduce Lahore to 106/4.

However, de Villiers and Wiese turned things around, much to Multan’s consternation. They are now fifth in the six-team table, level on points with bottom-placed Karachi Kings despite having played a game more.

In the other match of the day, Mohammad Sami, the former Pakistan paceman, claimed a hat-trick to help his Islamabad United side beat Peshawar Zalmi for their second win of the campaign.

Photo credit: PCB