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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

February 22, 2015

AB de Villiers

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

Q. AB, do you think the occasion was just too big for the side tonight?
AB de VILLIERS: Definitely not, no. Just not our day, I'd say. It's difficult to put it down to exactly where we went wrong. Quite a few areas where we just didn't play as well as we wanted to. Started pretty slow with the ball in hand. It was difficult to make breakthroughs throughout the day, and at the end of the day, I thought it was probably a 275, 280 par kind of wicket. We actually did well to keep it down to 307 and I thought we had a chance halfway through the game but unfortunately just lost our way completely with the bat in hand. Two runouts, absolutely unacceptable in the top six, just can't afford those kind of things. Other than that, we were just outplayed today.

Q. Bowling, we were talking about South African bowling is very good. When the Indians bowled it looked like that the pitch is doing something, but when your team, your bowlers bowled, Indian batsmen batted very well, and at the same time I'd like to ask one more question. Wayne Parnell has always been very expensive against India. Still he bowled 10 overs. What happened to Philander, he was not there after his initial overs?
AB de VILLIERS: Okay. Which one of the three must I answer? (Laughter.) I'll start off, you were talking about the wickets to start off with. Yes, it was a good wicket in the afternoon. There's no doubt about that. It took a little bit of wear and tear throughout the day, and it got a bit too paced in the evening. Without making any excuses, it did play a little bit difficult in the evening. I found it quite difficult. It's not often that a South African team struggles against short pitch deliveries, but it was twopaced. One skids on, one got stuck in the wicket a bit which made it really difficult to get on top of it. So that's your first question. VernonÂ sorry, Wayne Parnell, a little disciplineÂ he got it wrong with his disciplines, I think today. No balls unacceptable throughout an innings. We spoke about that at length in bowling meetings before, and bowled a couple of no balls, which cost him, and then obviously that drop catch didn't do him any favors. Other than that I thought it was an allaround pretty average performance by the bowling unit. Like I said, I thought 280 was probably par, maybe even a little bit less, but was happy about the last 10, the way we pulled it back. And then Vernon, I'm not sure about his injury yet. He'll go for scans tomorrow and we'll check it out. For now I have no idea what his condition is like and whether he will be ready for the next game, but we'll assess that tomorrow.

Q. Two big wins for India. What I want to know is was it good bowling or poor batting?
AB de VILLIERS: A bit of both, I think. I spoke to Hashim after the innings. He actually mentioned to me that he was quite impressed with the bowling performance from India. I thought they were quite clever tonight, but definitely a poor batting performance. Like I mentioned before, the two run outs cost us quite a lot tonight. You can't afford to have two run outs in the top six. You never know, but the top six are there to win games for you. It could have been my night or David's night tonight, and we both sat on the side of the field not even being dismissed by a bowler, which is very disappointing. Yeah, just all around disappointing performance.

Q. You've talked about the two run outs already. Were you slightly surprised by the sharpness of the Indians? Were you taken a little bit off guard?
AB de VILLIERS: Not really, no. I'm not surprised. That team had always want to win games. They're always competitive in World Cups and I didn't expect anything less from them to be honest. I expected them to be urgent, and they've run over in games, and especially in World Cups they lift their performance a bit. They didn't take us by surprise, but just poor running, I guess.

Q. We were in Melbourne but it felt like we were in Mumbai with the kind of home support that was there for India. Did it have any role on calling between the batsmen or on the field, etÂ cetera?
AB de VILLIERS: I don't think so, no. You've got to win games wherever you play in the world to be the best team in the world. If you want to be the best team in the world. It obviously plays a role for them. I think that they either got a bit of a boost feeling that they're playing at home with a lot of support. I felt like we had support, as well. It's definitely not an excuse. It shouldn't play a role, no.

Q. AB, just in the first 25 overs, Dale Steyn bowls four overs, and then you used him predominantly in the last 25. Do you think you need to revise that and maybe use him as your strike weapon, use him a little bit more up front?
AB de VILLIERS: It depends on the situation of the game. I just go on my gut feel. I could sit here and say that maybe my gut feel was wrong tonight. Maybe not. That's just the way I felt. The game, the rhythm of the game, that's the way I read the situation, and it probably didn't pay off today.

Q. Obviously a bad loss. There's a lot of work for the management and you as senior group to do. What is the kind of work that you will now put in and discussions that will take place in the week building up to the West Indies?
AB de VILLIERS: Yeah, there are a few things that need to happen. Obviously after a loss like that, it's quite disappointing and you want toÂ I almost don't want to think about it now, but obviously come tomorrow we'll have to start strategizing on how we're going to recover and regroup as a unit, and we'll put all our focus on Friday against the West Indies. It's a big game for us and it's a must win for us in Sydney, but for now I just want to sort of go feel sad in my room for a while, and we'll see again how I feel tomorrow. We'll come with a bit of energy again. The way I know this team, we always bounce back. We've got a neversaydie attitude, and this tournament is by a long way not over for us.

Q. Could you talk about the performance of Imran Tahir today? Generally legspinners have struggled against India in the past. Could you talk about that?
AB de VILLIERS: Yes, I was very impressed with his performance. He played against a team that's renowned for the way they play spin bowling, probably the best spin bowling batting unit there is, and also a lot of questions in the press before the game about is he going to play and why is he playing and why are you thinking of playing him and a lot of doubts about whether he should be playing or not. I'm just very happy with his performance. I'm very proud of the way he performed tonight against worldclass players, against spin, and he showed that he's right up there with one of the best spinners in the world at the moment.

Q. There have been a lot of scores of 300 in this tournament, but nearly all by teams batting first. Is that to do with conditions, or does 300 feel like a bigger score when you're chasing than when you're making it?
AB de VILLIERS: Definitely a bit of both. You feel the pressure chasing 300 plus. You take on shots that you might not normally take on, take on the second run that you normally wouldn't do. And here the condition certainly plays a role in that. I felt it did tonight. Once again, no excuses, but it was certainly a tougher wicket in the second innings, no doubt about it.

Q. In the context of the tournament as a whole this may not have a massive effect on going forward whether you qualify for the knockouts or even where you qualify in terms of the knockouts. Once you've got over that, it maybe wasn't the best performance. How much will this really mean in terms of the tournament as a whole?
AB de VILLIERS: Yeah, it's a big knock for us to get beaten by 130 runs. It's almost embarrassing. You never want to lose by that amount of runs. You always want to be a competitive team, feel like you're always in the game, feel like you've got a chance to win games. We pride ourselves on that, and it didn't happen today. We're going to have to lick our wounds for a while. It's not just, you know what, win a few more games, we'll be through to the quarterfinals. It's not about that. Your confidence takes a bit of a knock with performances like that, and it's up to the senior group of players to make sure that confidence is still there come Friday against the West Indies because little things like today's performance can creep into your game if you start thinking about it too much, and if you allow it to knock your confidence down. I feel like we're a mature group of players, but we'll regroup like I said before and we'll have a chat tomorrow about where we went wrong and have a mature chat and honest chat about it and then hopefully play some good cricket on Friday. When it comes down to making the quarterfinals, I still believe that if we play some good cricket, we'll make that, but for now we'll just have to lick our wounds and focus on Friday.

Q. You said on Melbourne is one of the slowest wickets you've played on. Could that be a factor today with the slow bowling doing well?
AB de VILLIERS: It was definitely a slow wicket today, there's no doubt about that. It sort of was quite difficult in the afternoon for our bowlers. When a Dale is running into the 140 plus, normally seeing shape, not seeing that today was obviously a bit painful for him and some of the other seamers. But once again, there are no excuses. We should have come closer tonight. It was a bit difficult and twopaced at the end, but still, those two run outs there at the end still cost us early. I still felt like a player like myself and a few others around me with David Miller, had we got a few partnerships going, without those run outs we would have come close. So that was very disappointing.

Q. Talk about the Indian spinners.
AB de VILLIERS: The Indian spinners, yeah, they bowled well. They definitely didn't win the game for them tonight. I thought we played them really well, which is another positive maybe if you look at it like that. But other than that, pretty dark.
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