AB De Villiers: World Cup Superstar

“He really is a remarkable player. The fact he is rated No.1 is just so justified.

“He scores 360 degrees around the pitch and as a bowler, I have got to feel sorry for them (because) what they can possibly do?”

The 31-year-old now holds the records for fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODIs, has 20 hundreds 43 fifties from 175 ODI innings and holds an average of 52.93.

The fact de Villiers has the back-up of incredibly talented and in-form teammates including Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis,Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel is the reason South Africa presents such a big threat in the World Cup.

Against the West Indies, Amla (65), Rossouw (61) and du Plessis (62) were also impressive with the bat, while it was Imran Tahir (5-45), Morkel (2-23) and Kyle Abbott (2-37) who did the most damage with the ball, while Steyn (1-24) was the most economical.

Given Rossouw and Abbott may not even have played had JP Duminy and Vernon Philander been fit, the Proteas have plenty of options.

If there were doubts about the team following its disappointing loss to India in Melbourne, they were vanquished by a dominant display with both bat and ball in Sydney.

While top spot in Pool B is out of South Africa’s control, with India now in the box seat after last Sunday’s win, South Africa will take plenty of confidence into its final three pool matches against Ireland, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

With a quarter-final match against either Sri Lanka or England likely, Pollock believes more magic from de Villiers in the knock-out stages could be the key to the Proteas winning their first World Cup.

“There’s no doubt he is a superstar captain leading from the front, what more could you want?”

“He can play those kind of innings and hopefully for South Africa he gets it right in one of the knockout games and gets them over the line.”