AB de Villiers IPL Stats: Runs, Centuries, Records and Career Highlights
ABD IPL stats come to 5,162 runs from 184 matches, with a strike rate of 151.68 and an average close to 39.7. That’s a big haul for a man who built his career in the middle order. De Villiers turned out for Delhi first and Royal Challengers Bangalore after that, 14 seasons in all. Most fans remember him as Mr 360, the batter who’d send a ball over any fielder from any angle. The Khelosports Platform pulls his numbers together here, season by season and innings by innings.
AB de Villiers IPL career statistics table
Here are the AB de Villiers stats in IPL, checked against ESPN cricinfo and the league’s official records. They cover every season from 2008 to 2021.
| Record | Statistics |
|---|---|
| IPL matches | 184 |
| Runs | 5,162 |
| Highest score | 133* vs Mumbai Indians (2015) |
| Batting average | 39.7 |
| Strike rate | 151.68 |
| Centuries | 3 |
| Half-centuries | 40 |
| Best season | 2016 |
| Most runs in a season | 687 (2016) |
AB de Villiers total IPL runs reached 5,162 by the end of the 2021 season, placing him among just six batters who had crossed the 5,000-run mark at the time. His batting average of 39.71 was the third-highest among players with at least 4,000 IPL runs, behind David Warner (41.60) and Chris Gayle (39.72), based on career figures available at the end of IPL 2021.
IPL journey: Delhi Daredevils to RCB
Delhi gave him his IPL debut in 2008. Three seasons there brought 671 runs from 28 matches, plus a first hundred, an unbeaten 105 against Chennai Super Kings in Durban in 2009.
Bangalore picked him up in 2011, and he stayed for the rest of his career. The wicketkeeper-batter was 27 when he arrived. Eleven seasons produced 4,491 runs from 156 matches. When he retired from all cricket in November 2021, he said he’d remain an RCB-ian for life.
Best IPL season: 2016 performance
Nothing else in the ABD IPL stats beats 2016. He finished with 687 runs at a strike rate close to 170, third on the season’s run chart. Virat Kohli topped that chart with 973, so RCB had two of the three biggest scorers.
Then came the hundred against Gujarat Lions in Bengaluru. De Villiers reached three figures in 43 balls, the quickest of the season’s seven centuries, and finished on 129 not out, the tournament’s best score. He scored 26 straight balls against Punjab in Mohali that year. RCB ended second after the league stage and reached the final, where Sunrisers Hyderabad beat them.
AB de Villiers’ highest score and centuries
His best score is 133 not out against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede in 2015, and it’s his highest in all T20 cricket, according to ESPNcricinfo. Kohli stayed with him through that innings, and the pair put on an unbeaten 215 for the second wicket. It stood as a record until they topped it with 229 a year later.
He finished with three IPL hundreds, every one unbeaten:
- 105* against Chennai Super Kings in 2009
- 133* against Mumbai Indians in 2015
- 129* against Gujarat Lions in 2016
Forty fifties sit beside those hundreds. Eight came off fewer than 25 balls, which matched the league’s best at the time.
IPL records, sixes and strike rate
Several Mr 360 IPL records trace back to sheer speed. ESPNcricinfo’s 2021 analysis put his 151.68 strike rate at the top among batters who’d faced 2,000 balls or more. As of His 2021 entertainment 251 sixes ranked second only to Chris Gayle when he retired. Few batters have scored that quickly for that long.
The final four overs were his favourite hunting ground. Between overs 17 and 20 he scored 1,421 runs off 611 balls, a strike rate of 232.56, with 112 sixes. He batted in those overs 81 times, nearly three times as often as Chris Gayle, so the sample is large. Lasith Malinga struggled against him, conceding 124 runs off 61 balls for a single dismissal. De Villiers picked up 25 Player of the Match awards, a league high at the time.
Partnership with Virat Kohli
14 May 2016, Gujarat Lions, Bengaluru. It all happened at Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB’s home ground. Kohli and de Villiers added 229 for the second wicket in only 97 deliveries. Kohli hit 109 off 55 balls, and de Villiers made 129 not out off 52. RCB finished on 248 and won by 144 runs. At that moment, no pair in T20 cricket had put on a bigger stand.
That match also saw RCB set the record for the Most Runs in Last 5 Overs in IPL, scoring 112 runs during the final five overs. No team has surpassed that total since, with 97 runs being the closest anyone has come.
Over the years, the two became the first pair in IPL history to record ten century partnerships. Together, they also crossed the 3,000-run mark.
Legacy and conclusion
Strip away the highlight reels and the ABD IPL stats still hold up. A huge strike rate, a healthy average, 14 seasons, and all of it from the middle order. Anyone following cricket on Khelosports will find his numbers a handy yardstick whenever a new batter starts chasing big totals.
