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South African cricketer Matthew de Villiers recently made waves in the cricketing circles with his First-Class debut, where he looked strikingly similar to the renowned AB de Villiers. Like ABD for South Africa, the 23-year-old right-hander wore the number 17 on the back of his jersey. Not only that, the youngster also displayed some vintage ‘ABD’ with the bat, pulling away and playing strokes at his will. Similar to 40-year-old AB de Villiers, Matthew was seen warming up on Instagram before taking the field. He played pull shots and back foot punches and looked exactly like De Villiers.
Born in 2000, Matthew de Villiers studied at Wynberg Boys High School, where he was a member of the school's first XI in grade 10 at the age of 15. He led the team in his last year at the school, an honor that the famous all-rounder Jacques Kallis had in the 1990s. Matthew has been known as an attacking middle order batsman and a gun fielder with a precise throwing arm from the age group cricket days. He is also a good middle pace right-arm bowler. In October 2024, the Protean made his first-class appearance with the Warriors for a four-day domestic series matchup against North West at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth.
Matthew de Villiers' performance over the time
It didn’t take much time for Matthew de Villiers to get going with the bat as he notched a handful of wonderful outings, scoring 94 in the first innings and 58 in the second. Meanwhile AB de Villiers left the game in 2021 after amassing over 20,000 runs in all formats, including 47 hundreds. Because of his capacity to score runs all over the park, he is also well-known as Mr. 360. In a significant move for his career, Matthew joined Oakmere CC in the Cheshire Cricket League in 2019.
He ended the tournament with 536 runs in 19 innings and had the highest score of 115. Not only this, but he also picked a total of 15 wickets during the tournament. He later played for Claremont CC in Cape Town, where he scored 3 hundreds and 924 runs at an average of 61 in 22 innings. In the ECB Southern Premier League 2022, Matthew obtained 1295 runs at a stunning average of 92.50 while playing for Hambledon CC. In addition, the talented seamer claimed 28 wickets. It's interesting to note that he became the first hitter to score more than 1000 runs in a single Southern Premier League season in 17 years.
