World Cup 2015, India v/s South Africa: Will AB de Villiers make all the difference?

For all the good things said and written about India's bowlers after they defended 300 rather easily against Pakistan last Sunday, the West Indian attack actually made mincemeat of them in Christchurch on Saturday. When was the last time we saw a Test-playing nation tottering on the brink of awkwardness — 1/4 — against another? Which brings us to the question: how does MS Dhoni plan to motivate his bowlers to come up with another telling performance against South Africa at the MCG here on Sunday?

Lest we forget, the Proteas go into this crunch Group 'B' encounter, to be played in front of an eye-popping 90,000 spectators including a certain Sachin Tendulkar, as the overwhelming favourites. In Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, David Miller and Jean-Paul Duminy, they boast, by far, the best batting line-up in the tournament. And in Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, they boast you know what.

And in addition to all these gems, they have someone by the name of Abraham Benjamin de Villiers. The 31-year-old, who also happens to be the captain of this enviable bunch, is the man India have to target. Or at least try to.

How capably and effectively Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja bowl to him will matter a lot in the ultimate analysis. Because de Villiers is, without doubt, the most dangerous, destructive and proactive batsman in world cricket today.

Fanie de Villliers lends some perspective to this argument. The former South Africa international, who is an authority on the art of fast bowling, reckons de Villiers is in the process of revolutionising the game of cricket. With his jaw-dropping repertoire, one that features innovative and hitherto unseen strokes, de Villiers is taking batting to an altogether different level.

"When Amla scores a 150-run knock, we call it lovely. When Sachin Tendulkar did it, you said it was fantastic. Viv Richards made 170, you said it was great. But AB is playing the kind of shots that batsmen will play 20 years later. That's the extent of the impact he is having on batting. Youngsters are looking to practise the shots he is playing," Fanie says.

"I remember how Tendulkar revolutionised batting in the 1990s. AB is doing the same, but he is a couple of notches higher," Fanie says. In a way, he's right. Tendulkar scored a whopping 100 hundreds, but he never scored one in 31 deliveries. De Villiers, Fanie adds, is a proactive player who thinks about the game. He brings his intellect to the game. He applies his mind. He conceptualises shots and then perfects them in the nets. He is someone who is willing to evolve his own game.

How can a batsman step outside the off stump and pull the ball over square-leg? How can one get down on his knees and scoop the ball over backward square-leg? Or, for that matter, slog-sweep a full delivery bowled outside off over the deep mid-wicket fence? There's more than just mundane stuff than hand-eye coordination to this madness.

De Villiers is not a freak of nature. He is no Chris Gayle or Kieron Pollard. He is an accumulator, a stylist and a slam-banger all rolled into one. In short, he is one of a kind and he is the best in the world.

So how do India stop him? After much thought, Fanie has this to say, "If you are a bowler, then you must warm up for 20 minutes, take a few rounds of the ground and when you are the top of your mark, you must tell your skipper than you have pulled a hamstring." Then, he laughs for a bit.

On a serious note, he rues that no one's bowling yorkers these days. "The most effective way to get a batsman out is to get him early. And the best way to do that is to bowl the faster. Sadly, very few bowlers are bowling yorkers these days," he says. So, there you go, Shami, Yadav and Sharma have to pitch it in the blockhole and hope that de Villiers misses it. Otherwise, they are going to have a long day.