AB de Villiers Jr & Sr were both dealing with deliveries, albeit of different kinds, on Sunday

De Villiers’ dad, who is a doctor, missed his son’s century knock at the Wankhede as he was dealing with a patient

It seems that while South African ODI skipper AB de Villiers was busy dispatching the deliveries by the Indian bowlers way beyond the boundary ropes en route his third century knock in the 5-match ODI series, his dad, also named AB de Villiers, was also dealing with deliveries, albeit of a different kind, reports NDTV Sports.

De Villiers (Sr), who is a general physician and surgeon with a specialisation in Sports Medicine having earned his MSc in 1996, was dealing with a pregnancy case on Sunday while his son went on a rampage against the Indian bowlers. De Villiers (Sr), who follows his son's cricket career keenly, couldn’t catch this knock however as he was busy with duty at the St Vincent Hospital, a private Catholic hospital at Bela Bela in Limpopo Province.

He admitted that he couldn’t catch his son in action on TV but added that the Caesarean section performed went about smoothly without any complications.

"I didn't watch the match on Sunday as I was busy in the operation theatre. The patient that I operated on can't be named but I can confirm that the Caesarean section done at the St Vincent Hospital was successful with both mother and baby doing well," the doctor said on Monday.

He, however, added that his wife had made sure not to miss the game at any cost.

"AB's mother did watch the match on TV at home," said Dr De Villiers.

De Villiers knock was one of the three centuries scored by South Africa in the fifth and final ODI at Mumbai helping the visitors post a mammoth total of 438 after winning the toss and batting first. They went on to win the match by 214 runs thus winning their first ever bilateral series in India.

Ironically, De Villiers could also have been alongside his father working as a doctor had he not decided to pursue cricket as his long-term future at the age of 19.

“AB was academically very strong at school and always thought of becoming a doctor. However, when a Titans contract was offered to him at the age of 19, he instead decided that cricket will be his number one," the doctor-father had said once, as reported by Deccan Chronicle. How cricket fans all over the world would be delighted that De Villiers took that decision then!

Having missed his son’s 23rd ODI hundred, De Villiers (Sr) is making sure that he won’t miss any of the action when the 31-year-old will make his 100th Test appearance during the 2nd Test which begins on November 14. The entire De Villiers’ family will be present at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, which is incidentally De Villiers’ home ground in the IPL as he features for the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise, when he reaches yet another landmark in what has been a truly remarkable career.