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    "title": "Expect New Zealand to engage in sledging: A. B. de Villiers",
    "lang": "en",
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    "cup_year": "2015",
    "article_type": "General",
    "excerpt": "South African skipper A.B. de Villiers believes there will be on-field sledging as they will be \"expecting",
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    "editor1": "<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">Auckland March 23 (IANS) South African skipper A.B. de Villiers believes there will be on-field sledging as they will be &quot;expecting the unexpected&quot; from a formidable New Zealand side in the semi-finals of the cricket World Cup at Eden Park on Tuesday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;New Zealand is normally a gentlemanlike team to play against, but sometimes they do come out and go for what they want, and we&#39;re expecting that,&quot; de Villiers said at the pre-match media conference on Monday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;We&#39;re expecting the unexpected. In knockout games things don&#39;t always go your way. In World Cups they don&#39;t always go your way. Whatever gets thrown at us tomorrow, I believe we have the right personnel to deal with that.&quot;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">The Proteas will be spoilt for choice choosing their third seamer as they will have both Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander to pick from, which the skipper believes will be a tough decision to take.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;Yeah, a difficult selection for us. Well, the whole squad is ready to go, and there are a few boys that have put up their hands in the World Cup, so it&#39;s difficult.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;It&#39;s really difficult, especially after a win like the last one. It&#39;s tough to change the squad and the team that played. But we might have to have a look at a couple of combinations, a couple of possibilities that might strengthen our team,&quot; he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">Asked what makes him confident about the match, given South Africa&#39;s history of choking in big games in the quadrennial event, he said: &quot;Yeah, there has been a lot of emphasis on our past and South Africa not doing well at World Cups. We don&#39;t mind that too much.&quot;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;I&#39;ve gone through the whole package of feeling emotional about it, fighting against it, then accepting it, then fighting again. Honestly I&#39;m not putting emphasis on that at this World Cup at all.&quot;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">He said his team is confident and are approaching the crunch match with a positive frame of mind.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;I&#39;m the guy who&#39;s got to answer those questions, and I don&#39;t mind doing that, but I know the squad is in a really good space, and once again I&#39;m going to say that sentence of knowing that if we play a good game of cricket we&#39;ll come out on top.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;We&#39;re that confident in our abilities as a cricket team. I&#39;m really focused about things like getting each player in a good space, and I believe they are,&quot; he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;Like I said, we&#39;ve been through a lot of hardship in the past with our World Cup games, but we feel very fresh and ready for tomorrow and very excited.&quot;&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">The skipper also added they have learnt valuable lessons from the group stage defeat to Pakistan and would not like to repeat the same against New Zealand.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;We definitely learnt some valuable lessons in that game. I was personally very disappointed with that loss. But having looked back now and reflected, I don&#39;t think anything over 230 has ever been chased on here in an ODI,&quot; the skipper remarked.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">&quot;It maybe not a bad thing to notice little things going into the semi-finals, the way to go about it, not to panic when you lose a couple of wickets early or whatever happens.&quot;&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size:14px;\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;\">Indo-Asian News Service<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n",
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    "created": "2015-03-23 11:47:00",
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