'Win will give us self-belief'

Clad in his half-sleeve training jumper and sporting tattoos of myriad hues on his well-toned biceps, Virat Kohli held forth in his typical candour.

The Indian batting mainstay is a man for the big occasion and having scored a century against Pakistan in India’s World Cup opener, the right-hander will be expected to deliver in another high-profile clash against South Africa here on Sunday. Kohli discusses his form, team’s chances against South Africa and tackling his RCB team-mate AB de Villiers. Excerpts.       

On the significance of the match: If we win, it will give us immense self‑belief that we can beat big sides come the knockout stages. South Africa is as we all know one of the top sides in the world and they have a good balance of batting and bowling.

Their fielding obviously is of high standard. Yeah, to get over that hurdle tomorrow will give us immense self‑belief in many ways. As I said, it's very important to hold momentum in a tournament like the World Cup, and that's something we started off on a good note and something we'll be looking to build on over the next few games.

On his 100 against Pakistan: Well, I've been in good form, so more or less it was a case of me making most of that and helping the team in doing so. It doesn't necessarily mean that I won't get a hundred, which would have a strike rate of over a hundred. You never know in cricket.

I might go out there tomorrow and I might get six boundaries in the first ten balls. It's just a matter of giving yourself the best chance. That's what I wanted to do out there, give myself a bit of time and figure out what my momentum of the innings would be today, and accordingly work the plan out.

On plans against AB de Villiers: Obviously, you will have plans for every player. All top players in the world, you can plan for everyone but they have that much ability that they can sort of play opposite of what you have planned for them.

It will be very challenging for our bowlers to make him play to our plans. He plays some freakish shots and I have witnessed it a lot of times. Everyone in the world has seen it. AB is a world-class player, we all know that. You have to bowl well to him so I am sure our bowlers will be ready for the challenge and hopefully it is one of those days where he won’t be able to score runs against us especially, so yes, I am hoping for that.

On huge Indian support at the stadium on Sunday: I love playing in full stadiums. It’s a great opportunity to go out there and do something special, make your people happy and make your team proud.