AB de Villiers was a teenage star at many sports, but he found his calling on Sunday as his century guided South Africa to the second-highest run chase in the history of Test cricket, beating Australia by six wickets in Perth on Sunday.
Set the unlikely target of 414 for victory, De Villiers stroked a determined 106 not out and, with the help of half-centuries from Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy, South Africa made the final day a relative stroll when it should have been a desperate fight for mere survival.
After the late onslaught of the fourth evening, when Kallis and De Villiers plundered 27 runs off the last three overs to reduce the deficit to 187, the pair batted through until half-an-hour before lunch, taking the score to 303 before the loss of Kallis’s wicket to the second new ball caused some obvious alarm.
Kallis had batted fluently for his 57 but was then disappointed to drive a wide delivery from Mitchell Johnson to gully, the left-armer finishing with 11 wickets in the match.
De Villiers and debutant Duminy struggled through to lunch on 322-4, but both showed tremendous concentration and mental strength as Australia’s bowlers went through their techniques with a fine-tooth comb.
Not a run was wasted as the fleet-footed duo ran superbly between the wickets and Duminy, whose debut has been long-awaited, gave a glimpse of his class as he began to flourish as victory became certain. The left-hander stroked the winning runs through the covers off Johnson as he completed his unbeaten half-century off 119 balls.
The 24-year-olds were the coolest of customers as they added 111 for the fifth wicket, and De Villiers can now proudly say he has a match-winning century against Australia to go with his extraordinary talent.
After scoring 63 in the first innings and taking four catches, three of them outstanding, it was not difficult to choose the former tennis, golf and rugby prodigy as the man of the match.
There were other heroes in one of the greatest victories in 132 years of Test cricket, with Kallis and Paul Harris leading the bowling and Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla providing vital momentum at the start of the innings.