Nathan Coulter-Nile admits being nervous before bowling to AB de Villiers

Australian fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile explained what the plan was to AB de Villiers after he dismissed the South African opening batsman for a golden duck in the 1^st T20 International on Friday. Despite de Villiers failing to trouble the scorers, the Proteas would go on to win by 3 wickets.

Coulter-Nile said that he was quite nervous when he ran into bowl to the South African opener. Speaking to cricket.com.au, he said: "I was a little bit nervous bowling to AB to be honest. If I can keep doing that I'll be happy."

The 28-year-old mentioned that the Australians had plans against de Villiers, but didn’t get to execute them after the first-ball dismissal.

Walking into bat with Quinton de Kock, de Villiers had received a rousing reception from the South African fans in Durban. The crowd were soon silenced after the South African Test and ODI captain flirted with a wide delivery and only managed to edge it to Australian wicket-keeper Peter Nevill.

"We didn't get to implement the plans, it was just bowl a good ball early doors and then we'll try and get into what we have to do. I got a little bit lucky; he tried to lay one down to third man and he just didn't quite get it," Coulter-Nile said.

"There was a bit of hush hush (from the crowd). It's never a great thing to start your innings like that, but we know he's going to be back in the next couple of games and the (T20) World Cup. He's a class player. It's never nice to go first ball."

Australian captain Steve Smith also noted the importance of the wicket of de Villiers, calling him one of the most destructive batsmen in the world.

"He (de Villiers) is one of the most destructive, if not the most destructive batsmen in the world. He does hit the ball 360 degrees so when he is going he's very tough to stop.

"But we're going to have a few plans in place that will hopefully work. He's a terrific player and very hard to stop. We're going to have to make sure we come up with a few things to get started," Smith said.

This was the second time that de Villiers was dismissed for a golden duck in international cricket, the first instance came against New Zealand in a Test in Dunedin four years ago. This was also his fourth duck in international cricket in 2016 – the highest for any batsman.