JOIN USCompletely dejected after South Africa’s second straight defeat in the Super Eights, skipper AB de Villiers said the setback has left a bad taste in his mouth.
“I said in all the interviews I have done tonight that it’s hard to put a finger on a reason for the defeat,” said de Villiers following Australia’s eight-wicket win over them in a Group 2 match on Sunday. “We started badly and finished badly as well. So there is a bit of a bad taste in my mouth at the moment. But we didn’t bat well in the first six (overs), lost too many wickets again. It was hard to get momentum from there on in. We tried really hard and got a little bit (momentum) towards the end. Robbie (Robin Peterson) played really well and Farhaan (Behardien) as well, very happy with that,” he explained.
After removing David Warner early, de Villiers, South Africa fancied their chances. “We always knew we had to get the two openers out early on and we got close with Watson which was the game-breaker at the end o the day. Unfortunately we couldn’t get him out.
We created a few opportunities, I thought we bowled pretty well to him but we couldn’t take those opportunities and a world-class player like that is going to take the game away from you if you don’t get him out. It was disappointing night altogether. We have got a lot think about and obviously we have to pick ourselves up come Tuesday,” he remarked.
Shane Watson picked up his fourth straight man of the match award for another bruising all-round performance and admitted he didn’t know how to explain his dream run. “I can’t really explain this,” he noted. “I guess things are finally falling my way. Today the ball with which I got de Villiers was an average one but I got the wicket. When I went into bat, I knew that we had to be careful in the first few overs against their world class bowlers. I am just making the most of my good form now,” Watson offered.