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AB laughs off Clarke 'apology'

Harare - AB de Villiers has admitted that some of Australia’s sledging during February’s Test series against South Africa may have gone too far but insisted that there were no grudges being held ahead of the first ODI between the teams in the Triangular Series at Harare Sports Club on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday before training de Villiers laughed when told that Clarke had apologised for some of the language used by his team, especially during the third and deciding Cape Town Test in March, the last of Graeme Smith’s career, reports the supersport.com website.

"I didn't know about that," De Villiers said, "but apology accepted!

"It was a hard fought series back in South Africa but there are definitely no hard feelings.

"You don't expect anything less when you play against an Australian team, or for that matter, one of the top three or four teams in the world.

"It's always a tough series and personally, for me as a batter, when I get sledged at the wicket I don't mind that at all.

"I really enjoy the challenge of facing some of the best bowlers in the world, it’s a huge privilege and I'm expecting to see more of that in this series.

"But we're also here to win, and to win this series, whatever it takes, so hopefully we play some good cricket," De Villiers said.

De Villiers did not shy away from the nature of the verbal exchanges and admitted that some of his teammates were more upset than he had been.

"There was lots of personal stuff and certain guys take it in a different way.

"I don't mind it, I laughed at a couple of the chirps I heard on the field in that particular test match in Cape Town.

"It's part of the game, I see it in that way ... but they can't expect us to be mates with them off the field if they get very personal," De Villiers said.

"But that was Cape Town and now we move on, it's a new series and we're here to win some games of cricket."

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