Zeroes in Centurion: Captain AB de Villiers bags a pair, hat-trick of ducks

Centurion, Jan 25: It is not the best of the times for batsman AB de Villiers. The South African captain on Monday (January 25) bagged a pair in the 4th and final Test against England here.

With the latest dismissal for zero, De Villiers has now failed to score a single run in 3 consecutive innings. He was in the second innings of the 3rd Test in Johannesburg last week.

Today, paceman James Anderson trapped De Villiers LBW to handed him his maiden pair in first-class career spanning 132 matches. The batsman however reviewed the decision but "HawkEye" proved the umpire was right.

The 31-year-old De Villiers walked back to the pavilion collecting a 2-ball duck. In the first innings, he lasted same number of deliveries before being dismissed caught by Joe Root off Stuart Broad's bowling. As of today, De Villiers had bagged 7 ducks in his 106-Test career.

De Villiers holds the record for not being dismissed for a duck for the longest time in Tests. His first score of 0 came in his 79th innings, against Bangladesh in 2008 at the same ground where he got out today.

The series ended for De Villiers with 210 runs in his account from 7 innings. He managed only 1 half century (highest score of 88) and averaged a poor 30. England have already won the series with an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Recently, there were speculations that De Villiers would retire from the longer version of the game. However, he put those rumours to rest but mentioned that he was not enjoying as much as he should be.

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