By his own lofty standards, AB de Villiers has had a poor Champions Trophy so far. The South African skipper scored four in the opener against Sri Lanka and a duck versus Pakistan. The maverick batsman also endured a poor IPL prior to this marquee event.
De Villiers, however, felt he's in decent form and the runs are just not coming.
“Look, I'm still in good form. Still hitting the ball well, as always. It's just a matter of going out there and doing it. There's nothing I can say here that's going to change anything except for that I still believe I can and hopefully I'll prove that tomorrow,” said the Protean on Saturday.
“But I'm very excited with this opportunity for the team and for myself on the big stage to go and just enjoy what we do best and that's to play cricket and to enjoy each other's company out there. So we're very excited about tomorrow, and I also feel really excited about the opportunities tomorrow.”
Just like his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli, de Villiers felt the key to win big matches is to stay calm under pressure. “It's really important to stay calm and not get overexcited. The tendency will be there, because we all live for these kinds of moments. That's why we play cricket, we want to play on the big stage against the big teams and tomorrow is one of those games.
“It's important for us to make sure we focus on why we've been successful over the last while and we've played with really good energy in both the games. I felt the guys were really hungry to succeed and unfortunately came unstuck in that last game. So I'm expecting the same kind of intensity and hunger out there tomorrow but with a relaxed kind of mind-set.”
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