We simply choked: de Villiers
First Published : 03 Oct 2012, 17:25
Last Modified : 03 Oct 2012, 20:00
Colombo, Oct 3: After suffering three successive defeats in the ICC World Twenty20, 2012, South Africa skipper, AB de Villiers was dejected at his team’s dismal performance. A deeply hurt de Villiers apologized for their poor show in the tournament after losing to India by one run in the last Super-Eights encounter. While addressing the media later, he expressed faith in his team and said that they need to regroup and work towards becoming a better team.
Excerpts from his press conference:
On their performance and what went wrong
We just didn’t play good cricket. It started against Pakistan where we got ourselves into a winning position and then somehow managed to find a way to lose that game. We still didn’t give up hope after that, worked really hard and came back against Australia. We just got beaten by a better unit on that day.
We tried hard again today but just never clicked in this tournament. We did all the preparation, fought really hard. It’s hard to put a finger on any one thing; we just played poor cricket right through. It is very disappointing, especially with all the support we got. We really felt very well supported throughout the tournament and to disappoint everyone, it hurts quite a lot.
During the big and the pressure moments, when it really mattered, we were found wanting, especially in that Pakistan game. We should have closed that game. We choked and that’s a simple fact. We have got to go back and become a better team.
On the motivation ahead of the match since South Africa had already been eliminated
Obviously we knew what the story was before we went out but every time I put this [South African] shirt on, it’s a huge honour. We gave it our best again tonight and unfortunately weren’t good enough. I will have to get back home and clear my mind before I start taking any learning out of this tournament.
On what the team did wrong
My head is spinning a little bit, not really knowing where exactly we went wrong. It’s a very emotional tournament, especially when you don’t play well as a team. Our next T20 game is in December against New Zealand. We will definitely come back a better team, I know that. I have faith in the guys.
On India playing with just one specialist spinner against SA despite needing a big win to qualify
I was quite surprised as I had expected another spinner to play. That’s probably the way they read the situation and the conditions. It got them a win, you can’t fault that. You can’t say they made a bad mistake but I was expecting an extra spinner. On this kind of a wicket and especially after watching the previous game, I thought they would play the extra spinner.
