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AB: It's hard to smile after that

Cape Town - Proteas captain AB de Villiers has expressed his disappointment following Saturday morning's defeat to the West Indies in Barbados.

The Proteas, chasing 286 for victory, were dismissed for 185 as they went crashing out of the Tri-Nation series while the Windies progress to Sunday's final against Australia.

A lethal opening spell from Kagiso Rabada had the West Indies in trouble at 21/4, but the Proteas could not capitalise on that start and would concede another 156 runs before taking their next wicket. 

De Villiers could not hide his disappointment at the post-match press conference.

"It's difficult to put a smile on your face after a horrible performance like that," he said.

"Such a great start. So much energy in the first 10 or so overs and we felt like we were really on top of them. Unfortunately we couldn't make another breakthrough after that, when we had them four down.

"I tried pretty much every thing I had in me with the bowlers but the guys in the field unfortunately couldn't get that going."

De Villiers had some harsh words for his players, especially the batsmen.

"What's going through my mind is a lot of disappointment," he said.

"Not enough of us put our hands up in this series and that's what it comes down to.

"Maybe some of us are out of form, including myself. I had a poor series and would have loved to have made a few more runs. Unfortunately it didn't happen."

De Villiers scored 121 runs in the series at an average of 24.2.

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