AB de Villiers: South Africa better than Australia despite 4-1 ODI series loss

AB de Villiers

South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers has said his side are the team to beat at the 2015 Cricket World Cup. The Proteas lost 4-1 to Austalia in the recently concluded bilateral series down under and their next assignment is a full-fledged series against the West Indies, starting on December 17th.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind we’re the better team. We didn’t play the big moments as well as we wanted to. Not a lot of guys did that in this series and that’s probably why we didn’t come out as winners. But we did compete in all five games. We didn’t have any bail-out games, where we don’t compete at all, and that was pleasing,” the 30-year-old told reporters after arriving in Johannesburg on Monday.

“Playing in their home country, Australia will be one of the favourites, but I still believe we’re the better team, and we will be the team to beat at the World Cup. I really believe we could’ve beaten them 4-1 on another day, but it’s easy to say that now,” he added.

AB de Villiers happy with personal form

The Royal Challengers Bangalore player said that his young team must’ve learnt a lot after playing in Australia and hoped that they would put those lessons to good use in the future.

“If you don’t learn, especially if you are not playing well, then you are not going to move forward as a team. We learnt a lot of little things, like flying from Perth to Canberra and understanding there is a time difference and jet lag comes into play even though you are on tour. And different wickets. There is no set of rules that you’ve got to play in a certain way in Australia. Russell (Domingo, the coach) and I made a lot of notes. We are definitely more prepared than what we would have been if we didn’t go on the tour,” he said.

On a personal note, de Villiers said that it was good to get some runs under his belt but added that it was a bittersweet feeling as his contribution couldn't help his side win games.

“I obviously scored some runs in this series but I’ve never really been a guy to look at that side of things.I’m quite hard on myself when it comes to finishing off games and winning games for the team, which I didn’t do in this series. I got out at some crucial times during the series, and so did all the batters around me. We didn’t have a great series with the bat,” the right-hander added.

South African coach confident

South African head coach Russell Domingo agreed with de Villiers’s comments, saying that Australia were tough to beat in their own backyard and the series margin didn’t reflect completely on how well the Proteas had played.

“It was a tough tour and the scoreline margin was not a true reflection on the closeness of the series.

“For long periods of time, we competed and had opportunities to win more than one game, but obviously we’re disappointed with the final result,” Domingo said.

He further added that unlike teams of the past, the current South African outfit is a mentally tougher unit and was optimistic about them performing well at the mega-event.

“We’ve performed under pressure in all formats in the last year or two. From batting out a day in Colombo, beating Australia in a final in Zimbabwe, to beating New Zealand in New Zealand, mentally the team is in a very good space. Skill and execution of skill is more the concern than the mental capacity of the side.

“We know there’s a lot of hard work that lies ahead before we head back to Australian shores in the next three months. Going to play that series before the World Cup was a big benefit. A lot of our players haven’t played under those conditions and it was a big plus that we were able to get some game time there,” he added.

South Africa will take on Zimbabwe in their first match of the World Cup on February 15th at Seddon Park in Hamilton.