June 4 (CRICKETNMORE) - South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 96 runs in a Group B match of ICC Champions Trophy on Saturday. Skipper AB DeVilliers was very happy with the team's performance and looking forward to upcoming match against Pakistan.
Speaking about team's show against SL at the post match presentation ceremony, he said, "Wasn't as true a wicket as the England-Bangladesh game. I was pretty happy about our total. Probably possible to chase it down but we needed a few early wickets, which we got. It's important to assess the first 10-15 overs. Credit to them; their bowlers bowled very well. And credit to the openers for sticking it out there".
"Faf came out and played a beautiful knock. It's scary the amount of runs Amla has piled on in his short career. He's got many years to come, hopefully for us. Such a team man. Contributes a lot in the changing room too. It's a difficult one (on why Tahir came late). You have to read the situation and the conditions out there. I felt it was important for him to start a little late today. There's no set plan. It comes down to good feeling in the gut. Good that he's the top ranked bowler, so I can bowl him anytime. Lot of focus on the fielding in the last few weeks. And it showed today. What pleased me today is that we competed every single ball - that's what a champion team is all about," he said.
Speaking about the upcoming match against Pakistan, he said, "We have Pakistan at Edgbaston next. We played them there at the last CT. The wicket's pretty good there, as we saw in the Aus-NZ game. We will see what plans will work against them. There are a lot of challenges as a captain: firstly I would like to score runs and lead by example. We do have a fantastic balance, so I will say that getting team selection right before every game in this tournament is a challenge."
Sahir