WATCH: De Villiers Make Blistering English Domestic T20 Debut, Slams 88 Off 43 Balls

With the help of 6 sixes and 5 fours, he scored 88 runs off just 43 balls, helping his team to register an easy win by seven wickets

Former South African skipper AB de Villiers made a blockbuster debut in England's domestic T20 competition Vitality Blast for Middlesex on Thursday. Batting against Essex at The Lord's, ‘Mr 360’ left no stone unturned in mauling the opponent bowlers. With the help of 6 sixes and 5 fours, he scored 88 runs off just 43 balls, helping his team to register an easy win by seven wickets with three overs to spare. Chasing 165, Middlesex had gotten off to a bad start as they lost their first two wickets with just 39 runs on the board. De Villiers came out to bat at number four and along with Dawid Malan, he stitched a 105-run stand to take Middlesex closer to victory.

🔥 A debut to remember for @ABdeVilliers17 🔥

A breathtaking 8️⃣8️⃣ from 4️⃣3️⃣ balls last night 💥🙌 Here are the highlights... pic.twitter.com/hh9cRCzuvy — Middlesex Cricket (@Middlesex_CCC) July 19, 2019

Malan departed after playing a knock of 43 runs, but de Villiers ensured that the team registers a victory by seven wickets and with 18 balls to spare. Earlier, after being put in to bat Essex kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and it was only due to Dutch player Ryan ten Doeschate knock of 74 runs that the team was able to post 164 runs on the board. AB de Villiers has been surrounded by controversy as during the recently concluded ICC Men's World Cup, Cricket South Africa's (CSA) selection panel had revealed that AB de Villiers wanted to make his way back into the World Cup squad on the day of announcement of the team. However, after South Africa failed to make it to the semi-finals of the World Cup, de Villiers released a statement saying there was no contact between him and CSA after his retirement from international cricket. He added that he made no demands from either the selection panel or skipper Faf Du Plessis.