AB's remarkable 2017 hot streak

AB de Villiers missed the back half of 2016 through injury but the record-breaking South African has certainly made up for lost time in the four months of action he's seen since.

De Villiers, who spent six months recovering from elbow surgery before hitting the ground running with an unbeaten 134no in a List A match for South African domestic side Northerns on January 22, last night shook off the rust of another injury – this time to his back – to slam an unbeaten 89 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League on Monday night.

It took his 2017 tally to 821 runs from 16 innings at 91.22.

All of those innings have come in limited-overs fixtures (one for Northerns, 12 for South Africa, two for Titans and one for RCB), with the prolific right-hander passing 50 on eight occasions.

And while his average is certainly boosted by the seven 'not outs' he's registered in that time, those undefeated innings also point to the fact that de Villiers has remarkably reasserted himself as one of world cricket's most valuable – and most difficult to remove – closers, both in setting and chasing a total.

Quick Single: ABdV fires but Kings cruise

In New Zealand in February-March, de Villiers became the fastest player in history to 9,000 ODI runs, top-scored for the Proteas twice in the five-match series, and in doing so played a key role in their 3-2 triumph and their return to the top of the ODI rankings ahead of June's ICC Champions Trophy.

The 33-year-old also returned to the top of the ODI rankings charts with 875 ratings points – 22 points clear of Australia opener David Warner.

Last night's IPL fireworks against Kings XI Punjab – de Villiers crashed nine sixes in a 46-ball onslaught for his 89no – took his career aggregate in the tournament to 3,346 runs, which sits him in eighth spot on the all-time list.

Among the top 10 run-scorers, only West Indian blaster Chris Gayle has made his runs at an average and strike-rate superior to de Villiers' 40.31 and 150.24 respectively.

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The right-hander also became just the fourth player to hit 150 sixes in the IPL, while it was the second time he'd hit nine or more sixes in an IPL innings.

"I did surprise myself and played a few good shots," de Villiers said while mic'd up in the field during the Kings XI innings.

"It's more of a mental thing than anything else.

"It's not like you become a bad player overnight; the rustiness is more self-doubt.

"(That self-doubt) was there the last few days, I must admit."