How do we stop AB de Villiers?

AUCKLAND: Pakistan will need several peaks to climb in their bid to conquer formidable South Africa here at Eden Park on Saturday (today), writes Khalid Hussain.
And the most towering of them all is AB de Villiers.
How can you stop a man, who can break all batting rules and can ride roughshod over even the world’s best bowlers on any given day and at any venue no matter how big or small?
Ask Dale Steyn and he will tell you to somehow break AB’s ankle before the game.
The South African fast bowler on Friday compared AB with Neo saying watching him bat is like watching Matrix. Neo, for anybody who hasn’t seen the Matrix trilogy is the ‘One’ who can break and bend all rules, at will.
Ask Misbah-ul-Haq and he will tell you that the only way to stop AB is to get him out.
Pakistan’s captain knows that if AB is allowed to stay on the wicket, any chance his team has of winning their tough World Cup game would be gone.
“AB is no doubt the world’s best batsman at the moment,” Misbah said ahead of their Pool B game against the Proteas.
But he was quick to add that Pakistan have made plans to dismiss the master blaster early.
“We’ve got some plans (for him) as we have some good bowlers who can really just put him under pressure. But the only way of stopping AB is just try to get him out. That’s the only way I think. Otherwise if he’s there, it’s not easy to stop him,” Misbah said.
Steyn, who made both his ODI and Test debuts with AB, was even more lavish in his praise for the super-batsman.
“It’s like watching The Matrix movie, really. There is Neo for you right there. Like he just doesn’t understand how good he is. “There is no roof or cap on how good he can possibly be. He’s limitless in what he can do.
“Players around the world, bowlers are struggling to find a way to get this guy out. The only way to get him out is when he gets himself out. He’s that good at the moment. Yeah, hopefully we can see more players like him because it does make the game more entertaining to watch.”
Asked what will he do if he needed to stop De Villiers at Eden Park, Steyn said laughingly: “I’d trip him on his way out of the hotel tomorrow morning and hope that he breaks his ankle.
“He’s a phenomenal player and seeing the ball like no other player has seen a cricket ball before, and he’s playing shots that I don’t think most people have seen before.”
When asked whether AB will be particularly dangerous at Eden Park, known for its short boundaries Steyn stressed that AB was equally destructive on any ground.
“I really don’t think it matters the dimensions of the ground really. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big ground or small ground, he’ll still find a way. That is the beautiful thing about really good players. They don’t rely on conditions. Great fast bowlers don’t have to worry about whether the track is flat or green. They’ll find a way to get wickets. And great batsmen don’t worry if the field is small or big, they’ll find a way to score runs.”
AB raised the bar when it comes to batting in this tournament when he destroyed West Indies in a 66-ball 162 in their World Cup game. It was the second-fastest World Cup century ever, but it was not even his fastest ton this year, given he smashed 100 off 31 balls against the same opposition in January.
The 31-year-old now holds the records for fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODIs, has 20 hundreds 43 fifties from 175 ODI innings and holds an average of 52.93.