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Cape Town - AB de Villiers has lauded his troops after their series clinching four-run (Duckworth/Lewis) victory over Sri Lanka in the third ODI at Chevrolet Park in Bloemfontein on Tuesday evening.
This is De Villiers’s maiden series win as Proteas captain, an achievement characterised by the experimentation in the batting order, adaptability to the diverse conditions and spectacular contributions in the field.
“I’m really proud of the boys for winning the series,” said De Villiers. “We took it one game at a time and we played some really good cricket over the last week. I would like to think that we are going to keep playing this type of cricket for the next two games and take it off to New Zealand.
The selectors’ visionary planning has given the Proteas’ brains trust the leverage to try out certain combinations and players in the pool of identified players, ahead of a busy year in the limited overs arena.
“We showed a lot of maturity, there are a lot of young guys that have come in and they showed a lot of experience and maturity in the way that they have played. I’m proud of the guys, we didn’t expect that (3-0) but I’m very happy with the performances.”
The focus for the Proteas is still on a 5-0 series sweep as the series moves to Kimberley and Johannesburg for the final two matches. A clean sweep would be the ideal confidence boost for the One-Day outfit, who will have achieved an outstanding result, without some regular big names in the line-up.
“The focus for us is on the next game. 4-0 is the first goal, we will take it one step at a time and try to focus and to make sure we play the basics really well. It’s important to start from step one and to take it through from then on.
“We go to Kimberley, those are new conditions and once again we will assess the wickets and go from there. 4-0 would be great and then we’ll look at Wanderers from there.”
This is De Villiers’s maiden series win as Proteas captain, an achievement characterised by the experimentation in the batting order, adaptability to the diverse conditions and spectacular contributions in the field.
“I’m really proud of the boys for winning the series,” said De Villiers. “We took it one game at a time and we played some really good cricket over the last week. I would like to think that we are going to keep playing this type of cricket for the next two games and take it off to New Zealand.
The selectors’ visionary planning has given the Proteas’ brains trust the leverage to try out certain combinations and players in the pool of identified players, ahead of a busy year in the limited overs arena.
“We showed a lot of maturity, there are a lot of young guys that have come in and they showed a lot of experience and maturity in the way that they have played. I’m proud of the guys, we didn’t expect that (3-0) but I’m very happy with the performances.”
The focus for the Proteas is still on a 5-0 series sweep as the series moves to Kimberley and Johannesburg for the final two matches. A clean sweep would be the ideal confidence boost for the One-Day outfit, who will have achieved an outstanding result, without some regular big names in the line-up.
“The focus for us is on the next game. 4-0 is the first goal, we will take it one step at a time and try to focus and to make sure we play the basics really well. It’s important to start from step one and to take it through from then on.
“We go to Kimberley, those are new conditions and once again we will assess the wickets and go from there. 4-0 would be great and then we’ll look at Wanderers from there.”
