De Villiers feels South Africa's loss at Mohali has been blown out of proportion

De Villiers feels South Africa could have won the match had they bowled better

AB de Villiers claimed that South Africa’s defeat at Mohali in the opening Test match has been blown out of proportion, IBNLive reports. The 31-year-old also said that he is expecting to encounter turning pitches in the remainder of the series but added that the hosts were fully entitled to prepare pitches that suited their strength.

India won the four-match series opener by 108 runs with the spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja picking up 19 wickets between them. The match, which got over under three days time, was a low scoring one with the Indian batsmen also failing to negotiate the opposition bowling.

De Villiers acknowledged that the loss was down to mistakes from South Africa’s end but added that too much is being made out of the result with some even predicting a clean sweep with more turning tracks expected.

"Absolutely. Way too much has been made of it (loss in the first Test). It has been blown out of proportion. If you look at the batting scorecard of both the teams, no one has scored a hundred. Both teams struggled on the pitch. Both teams struggled against spin and looked foolish at times," he told reporters ahead of the second Test starting on Saturday.

"We came out on the losing side because we did not play a couple of sessions to our full potential and that cost us the game. We could have batted better in the first innings; but unfortunately, we didn't. And in India's second innings, we let it slip by 50 to 100 runs. We could have done better with the ball in hand. That's where we lost the Test match. It's got nothing to do with the wicket. Both teams struggled against spin – you can read the scorecard and see that."

"I don't think we played poorly in that first Test match. For a couple of hours, we didn't play good cricket. It had nothing to do with our skills and our potential to take India on in their own conditions," De Villiers added.

De Villiers expecting more turning wickets

The South African, who had earlier claimed that he’ll do whatever it takes to ensure his side won matches, believes India are well within their rights to prepare pitches that suit their core strength of spin-bowling but also added that his side has the necessary skills to counter the threat and stage a comeback in the series.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with home teams changing the conditions to favour them and to favour their strengths. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I don't mind that. I feel we've got all the firepower to counter that. We showed signs of that in the first Test match but not for long enough. Hopefully in this Test match we'll find that rhythm and have more endurance than the opposition," he said.

"I'm prepared for any kind of Bangalore wicket. All four of the Test matches will be played in similar conditions, no matter where we play. If we play India at the Wanderers in South Africa and it's seen as an Indian ground (home match), it will have turn on it. We're expecting turning wickets, wherever we go. We'll be prepared for that. We've worked really hard on our game and covered all bases.”

Two players De Villiers seems to have supreme confidence in are South Africa’s new opening duo of Dean Elgar and Stiaan van Zyl as he felt the pair looked comfortable dealing with the Indian spinners.

"I think they are. It's difficult to look at the scorecard because not too many players got runs. But two or three of our batters looked comfortable on that surface and Elgar and van Zyl come to mind. The rest of us struggled a bit at times, but they are definitely two of our batters that looked comfortable playing against the spinners on that wicket, which is very promising for us," he said.

"Yes, it's important to have opening stands -- they know their roles and responsibility in the team. According to my gut feeling, they are definitely two of the in-form batsmen in our line-up at the moment. I'm expecting them to do well here."

De Villiers, who will be playing his 100th âÂ?Â?Test match at Bangalore, also revealed that Dale Steyn is facing a race against time to be fit in time for the second Test which begins on Saturday.

"He's (Steyn) going for a fitness test as we speak. So I'm not 100 per cent sure. We are hoping for his return, but we'll see how he goes today [Thursday] and tomorrow [Friday]," De Villiers said.