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AB soon pushed the nerves aside
‘It was almost as though he was playing his debut. He was very edgy,’ says coach Domingo
Before Wednesday‚ AB de Villiers had pulled an SA shirt of whatever format over his head 383 times. That is enough‚ you would think‚ to take the edge off doing so for the 384th time. You would think wrong. "He was nervous‚" SA coach Russell Domingo said. "It was almost as though he was playing his debut. He was very edgy. "It’s great — it shows how much it still means to perform. "That’s exciting for us‚ because it’s almost like a bit of a rebirth for him after he’s had seven months off." In the broader sense, Wednesday’s match was the third T20 between SA and Sri Lanka at Newlands‚ and it came with its own importance as the series decider. But the focus was squarely on De Villiers‚ who has been kept out of international cricket since June by an elbow injury. De Villiers is never out of mind‚ even when he is out of sight‚ and his withdrawal last week from the Test series SA will play against New Zealand‚ England and Bangladesh in the coming months only served to disquiet his compatr...
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