South African captain AB de Villiers is adamant his team won’t produce another World Cup choke in Wednesday’s quarter-final against Sri Lanka.
The Proteas go into the SCG encounter never having won any of their five knockout matches at previous World Cups, a sorry statistic which led to them being tagged chokers on the biggest stage.
“I haven’t thought about that very often, all I can say is we’re not going to choke,” de Villiers said at his pre-match media conference at the SCG on Wednesday.
“We’re just going to play a good game of cricket tomorrow and come out on top.”
The world’s no.1 ranked ODI batsman, de Villiers leads his side against a Sri Lankan team featuring red-hot Kumar Sangakarra, who has risen to world No.2 ahead of the Proteas’ Hashim Amla after scoring a record four successive World Cup centuries.
De Villiers had no interest in pumping up the idea of a head-to-head contest between the Sri Lankan superstar and himself, even though it has been a major topic of pre-match conversation.
“I couldn’t care less about him or me, I just want to win the game of cricket tomorrow,” de Villiers said.
“If our number 11 batsman tomorrow wins us the game, so be it.
“I just want to find a way to win.”
De Villiers reported no injury worries for the Proteas, who opted against training on Tuesday.
“I’m very comfortable with where the team is at, with the form that everyone is showing,” de Villiers said.
“I just felt it was important not to focus too much on cricket today, keep the brain switched off a little bit before the big clash tomorrow.
“It’s important for us to be fresh.
“I believe we play really good cricket when we feel fresh and we are mentally fresh and we just play the pressure situations so much better, that was the thinking behind today.”
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Sign the man up for a contract next season!
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