AB de Villiers earns a place in the record books with this remarkable achievement

If it wasn’t common knowledge before then it certainly is now — you are a freak.

The South African right-hander stroked, flicked and pummelled his way to 119 off just 61 balls in the fifth and deciding one day international match against

India in Mumbai on Sunday night to guide the Proteas to a 3-2 series win. Two of his teammates also posted centuries (Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis), but de Villiers’ ton was the most significant because it earned him a place in the record books.

The 31-year-old’s knock saw him become the only player in the world (among those who have scored at least 500 ODI runs) to average more than 50 at a strike rate of more than 100 in one day internationals. At the end of the Indian bilateral series, de Villiers’ record makes for incredible reading — he averages 54.21 at a strike rate of 100.28.

If he maintains this record for the rest of his career he will become the only player in history to have managed such a feat, as no other player has ever finished with such stats to their name.

A strike rate refers to the number of runs a batsman scores per 100 balls faced, while an average refers to the average amount of runs a batsman scores per innings.

Having debuted in 2005, de Villiers has accumulated more than 8400 ODI runs in 187 innings, with 23 centuries and 47 half-centuries. What makes his achievement all the more remarkable is that he has had the added responsibility of skippering the national side in the 50-over format since Graeme Smith resigned after the 2011 World Cup.

To put de Villiers’ record into perspective, of the 17 players with higher strike rates in ODI history, only two have managed to average in the 40s. One is Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar, who averages 49.42 at a strike rate of 102.51, but he has only played 16 internationals. The other is Aussie all-rounder James Faulkner, who has an average of 42.84 and a strike rate of 113.37. But again, he has sustained that form for the relatively short period of 44 games compared to de Villiers’ 195 appearances.

The rest of the list sees averages ranging from the teens to the mid-30s, showing just how difficult it is to combine a high strike rate with a high average. Often the search for quick runs results in more frequent dismissals for low scores, but de Villiers has bucked that trend by finding the perfect balance between aggression and longevity at the crease.

De Villiers sits second on the list of batsmen with the highest averages in ODI history, with only the Netherlands’ Ryan ten Doeschate boasting a better one (67 from 32 innings). The South African is the only member of that list’s top 10 to have a strike rate above 90.

In short, AB de Villiers is one of a kind