AB de Villiers & Co. is confident of making it two in two

South Africa will take on Pakistan in Birmingham on Wednesday (7th June). For the Proteas, a win here will take them closer to the semi-finals and on the other hand, for Pakistan, a win will keep their hopes alive in this tournament. They last met the Pakistani team in an ICC event, it was way back in the 2015 World Cup where they were asked to chase 222 runs and South Africa failed to chase it down.

AB de Villiers seemed to be really confident about their second league match and plugged back their last time performance against the same team in Champions Trophy when he was reminded of their disheartening defeat against Pakistan in World Cup 2015.

“The last time we played them in the Champions Trophy, we got the better of them at the same ground. So we are confident going into this game, without being arrogant or overconfident. We played really good, won our first game in the tournament. We did all the basics really well, so we’ll be focusing on that.

“We don’t feel any pressure. We feel it’s an opportunity once again in this tournament to shift the pressure on to all the opposition we might face. But all our focus is on tomorrow’s game. We are very, very prepared and the plans are all in place to go and take Pakistan on,” de Villiers said.

Past ICC tournament experiences

He further added that his team has learnt from their past ICC tournament experiences and will look to ‘stay in present’ and not think much about the past.

“I wouldn’t say its part of team tactics. It’s just an awareness of not thinking of the past or the future, as simple as that,” he explained. “If we live in the past, there are lots of scars that we can think of, lots of bad experiences, but some good ones as well. If you try and touch in the future, it’s something we can’t control as of yet. So it’s just wise to try and stay in the moment with what you’re confronted with at the very time.

“It’s just a little saying that I feel is quite powerful for us to focus on the very next ball – well, not the very next ball, but the one that you’re actually dealing with at that moment – and not trying to think of how you’re going to finish your over or the few boundaries you just went for. Every bowler has the opportunity to influence the game, and that’s the idea behind it,” Mr 360 added.

Challenge South Africa can face:

A challenge South Africa can face is the spin bowling options of the Pakistan bowling attack. If the wicket, which was used for Indo-Pak clash is used, it will make it difficult for South African to face the spinners.

When asked on this, he replied confidently by saying, “Two of the four are part-time spinners,” he argued. “We’ve played against a lot of opposition in the last, two-three years with two spinners in it. We just played a series against England now with a couple of spinners in, a wrist-spinner, also a finger spinner.

“So not much changes. Every batter has got his game plans in place for the various bowlers, not only the spinners. That’s part and parcel of our analysis before games, to make sure we’re ready for them. So we’ve gone through all bowlers and we’re pretty happy with our plans.”