Cape Town - Proteas legend Allan Donald heaped praise on AB de Villiers' batting display for the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday at Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium.
De Villiers, who recently recovered from a back injury, replaced hard-hitting West Indian batsman Chris Gayle to play in his first match for the Bangalore team.
Bangalore were in trouble after losing their openers Vishnu Vinod (7) and Shane Watson (1) cheaply.
The visiting team stood on 68/4 before the Proteas ODI skipper took things in his own hands and produced one of the most blistering innings of the competition thus far.
De Villiers smashed 89 off 46 balls (3 four's and 9 sixes) to take Bangalore to 148 in their 20 overs.
However, De Villiers' innings went in vain, as the Kings XI Punjab won by eight wickets with 33 balls to spare.
De Villiers told commentators on the field that he was "surprised" by his performance shortly after coming back from injury.
"I did surprise myself and played a few good shots... It's not like you become a bad player overnight, the rustiness is more self-doubt," said De Villiers, as quoted by Reuters.
Former Proteas paceman Allan Donald, who witnessed De Villiers' onslaught, took to Twitter to proclaim De Villiers the scariest player he has ever seen.
Donald wrote: "I did battle against some serious batters in my time. @ABdeVilliers17 is the scariest player on the planet I have ever seen. #breathtaking"
