ODI Cricket: Top 10 greatest batting streaks

#3 AB de Villiers (South Africa): 2009-2013

South Africa v India - First ODI

Matches: 49, Runs: 2663, Average: 76.08, Highest: 134, 100/50: 11/13, Strike-Rate: 103.

In his first 91 ODI matches, AB de Villiers scored 2949 runs at an average of 39. Those are very good numbers but there is very little in them to suggest the carnage that de Villiers was about to unleash in the next few years. Between November 2009 and June 2013, de Villiers scored 2663 runs at an average of 76 at a strike-rate of 103.

He was the first batsman in ODI history to aggregate over 2000 runs at an average in excess of 70 at any point of time.

De Villiers scored 11 hundreds and 13 half-centuries during this period. On 4 separate occasions, he scored consecutive hundreds. 3 in a row against India and West Indies in 2010 (all away), 2 in a row against Zimbabwe in 2010, consecutive hundreds against West Indies and Netherlands in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and 2 against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in 2012.

Looking back at it, it is an absolute travesty that South Africa played so few ODIs during this period.

It was the coming of age of de Villiers, and he marked it in a way only he is capable of. He was anointed South Africa's captain after Graeme Smith and would continue to plunder bowlers across the world. This streak marked de Villiers as one of the world's best, but he would not be satisfied this easily.

Soon after this streak ended, AB took his game to a different level establishing himself as one of the game's greatest, if not the greatest. He is the only one who makes this list twice, and you are about to see what all the hullabaloo is all about.