AB: “This defeat ranks right up there”
South Africa captain AB de Villiers was at a loss to explain his team’s indifferent performance against India at The Oval but insisted that his team is good enough to one day win a world tournament under his stewardship.
In a must-win game, the nature of the defeat – by eight wickets with 12 overs to spare, after three of his own team suffered run-outs including himself – sharpened AB’s sense of frustration, though not his resolve to keep leading the team forward.
“The way we lost was the most disappointing part of it. We were really in a good position there with the batting early on, and through soft dismissals we lost our way. That was the part for me that hurt the most. We were on for round about 300, which I thought was very defendable on that wicket today.”
#CT17 IND v SA - AB de Villiers Post-Match Press Conference
He rejected any suggestion that his team had lacked composure. Instead he blamed a lack of judgment with the bat for his team’s collapse from 76-0 to 191 all out. “I felt the team was pretty composed today,” he said. “I don't think we lost it there with composure. A few errors in judgment, a few mistakes out there cost us badly. I felt pretty calm with the team all the time. We played some good shots. Just a couple of bad errors in judgment out there that cost us.”
The innings subsided in the middle overs, with back-to-back run outs of first de Villiers and then, in the very next over, David Miller. “We desperately needed another partnership in the middle order. That's where we lost our way. We needed one more partnership of 50-odd to get the ball rolling again after my run-out and we couldn't do that. Run-outs happen. Three in one innings is definitely not the way we want to play our cricket, that's for sure.”
Quinton de Kock 53 v India
Given South Africa’s poor record in knockout matches at world tournaments, did the captain think a radical shake-up of his country’s cricket would be required? “That's a question can only be answered by people who are in control of making radical decisions,” he said. “That's not my decision, that. We'll have to wait and see what people out there want to decide or whoever is in control of making those kinds of decisions. I don't think we are a bad cricket team. It wasn't a mental thing. We just didn't play well.”
He insisted that he remains committed to taking the team forward, and with one eye on returning to England for the ICC World Cup in 2019, asserted that his team are “pretty close’ to finally taking a world title. “I'm a good captain. I love doing it. And I can take this team forward. I can take us to win a World Cup, I believe. And I believed the same thing over here in this tournament, and the last one.
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“Not a lot of people believe me but I feel it's pretty close. I don't think it feels far away. It's very difficult to say that after a performance like this, but that's what I believe in my heart. I believe we're very close as a unit. There's more than enough talent, and we've just got to get it right when it matters most.”