The South African will play in his 100th Test match today when the second Test between his county and India in Bangalore begins.
100 UPp
De Villiers, who made his Test debut against England in December 2004, averages 51.92, with 21 hundreds to his name. He will become the 63rd cricketer, and sixth South African, to clock 100 Tests. He also has held the wicket-keeper role for the team, too, since 2012.
FOCUS ON TEAM
De Villiers, 31, said he was more interested in helping South Africa level the series with India, having lost the first match, than celebrating his own achievements. “I don’t feel any pressure because it is my 100th game,” he said. “I feel pressure because we are 1-0 down. It’s a huge honour to play my 100th Test because never in my life I thought I will be in this position. I just want to have an impact on the game and I want to play my role in the team and get us into a position where we can win this Test and get back into the series.”
SPECIAL VENUE
While De Villiers continued to try to play down his 100th appearance, he did acknowledge he was pleased to be doing it in Bangalore, given he plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. “I have never been sentimental about these things, but I have to add that playing in Bangalore is really special for me,” he said. “I love coming here. I enjoy touring India in general.”
STRUGGLES
De Villiers led scorers with 63 in the first innings at Mohali and 16 in the second, but was foxed by leg-spinner Amit Mishra both times and found his stumps shattered. “Both teams struggled on that pitch; no one scored a hundred,” he said. “Both teams struggled against spin and looked foolish at times playing spin.”
FOREIGN CONDITIONS
Spin dominated the first Test in Mohali, which India won by 108 runs, but De Villiers is upbeat that the Proteas can fight back. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with home teams changing the conditions to favour them,” he said. “I feel we have the fire power to counter that. Hopefully, in this Test match we will find the rhythm and have more endurance than the opposition.”
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Welterweight:
Abdoul Abdouraguimov (champion, FRA) v Jarrah Al Selawe (JOR)
Lightweight:
Anas Siraj Mounir (TUN) v Alex Martinez (CAN)
Welterweight:
Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA) v Khamzat Chimaev (SWE)
Middleweight:
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Rustam Chsiev (RUS)
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) v Christofer Silva (BRA)
Super lightweight:
Alex Nacfur (BRA) v Dwight Brooks (USA)
Bantamweight:
Jalal Al Daaja (JOR) v Tariq Ismail (CAN)
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The Abu Dhabi Awards explained:
What are the awards? They honour anyone who has made a contribution to life in Abu Dhabi.
Are they open to only Emiratis? The awards are open to anyone, regardless of age or nationality, living anywhere in the world.
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If you go
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Santiago, via Sao Paolo cost from Dh5,295 with Emirates.
The trip
A five-day trip (not including two days of flight travel) was split between Santiago and in Puerto Varas, with more time spent in the later where excursions were organised by TurisTour.
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The summer months, from December to February are best though there is beauty in each season
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
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Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
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Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
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Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
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UAE v Gibraltar
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Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
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But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.