Durban - South Africa will not be taking a wounded Sri Lanka lightly during the Boxing Day Test at Kingsmead, Proteas batsman AB de Villiers said on Saturday.
GALLERY: 2011 in review
The Sri Lankans are coming off a heavy innings defeat inside three days in the first Test in Centurion but De Villiers said that the fact that the visitors' line-up includes world-class players like batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara means they are still a dangerous outfit.
“I think they will definitely fight back. They have world-class players and they won’t go down without a fight. We will be up for that,” De Villiers told SuperSport.com.
The Proteas have lost their last three Tests at Kingsmead and batsman Ashwell Prince said that complacency may have been the reason for their recent inability to win home series.
"We've had a few opportunities in the last few series to put them away and for some reason or other we haven't been able to do that. Perhaps there has been a bit of complacency when we have been in good positions," Prince told Reuters.
"But we have another opportunity and hopefully we can kill it off before we go to Newlands," he added.
De Villiers also said that the Proteas' poor record at Kingsmead is something that the team are well aware of and will be doing utmost to rectify.
"We haven't been playing good cricket here (Kingsmead) of late. We want to turn that around and win a few games here, and win this Test match. It's something that we have talked about," said De Villiers.
GALLERY: 2011 in review
The Sri Lankans are coming off a heavy innings defeat inside three days in the first Test in Centurion but De Villiers said that the fact that the visitors' line-up includes world-class players like batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara means they are still a dangerous outfit.
“I think they will definitely fight back. They have world-class players and they won’t go down without a fight. We will be up for that,” De Villiers told SuperSport.com.
The Proteas have lost their last three Tests at Kingsmead and batsman Ashwell Prince said that complacency may have been the reason for their recent inability to win home series.
"We've had a few opportunities in the last few series to put them away and for some reason or other we haven't been able to do that. Perhaps there has been a bit of complacency when we have been in good positions," Prince told Reuters.
"But we have another opportunity and hopefully we can kill it off before we go to Newlands," he added.
De Villiers also said that the Proteas' poor record at Kingsmead is something that the team are well aware of and will be doing utmost to rectify.
"We haven't been playing good cricket here (Kingsmead) of late. We want to turn that around and win a few games here, and win this Test match. It's something that we have talked about," said De Villiers.