With more of his big guns firing at the business end of the tournament, South African captain AB de Villiers believes he has the artillery to win his nation’s first cricket World Cup trophy.
An impressive nine-wicket quarter-final demolition of Sri Lanka on Wednesday has turned the talk about South Africa from being serial chokers to a powerful unit capable of going all the way.
The Proteas produced their best bowling form of the tournament to skittle a strong Sri Lankan batting unit for just 133, taking the last six wickets for just 19 runs.
The pace trio of Dale Steyn, Kyle Abbott and Morne Morkel only took a wicket each, but their speed, hostility and excellent line imposed unrelenting early pressure on the 2007 and 2011 runners-up.
Spinners Imran Tahir and JP Duminy maintained the pressure, taking seven wickets, with the latter collecting a hat-trick.
The modest target was reached in just 18 overs and propelled South Africa into a semi-final showdown with either New Zealand or West Indies in Auckland next Tuesday.
“I truly believe that we feel really strong as a unit and confident going into the semi-finals,” de Villiers said.
“We didn’t come all this way to say that we made it to a semi-finals of a World Cup.
“We want to go all the way as a team and we believe we have the right group here to achieve that.”
Among the most pleasing aspects of the Proteas dominant performance was the timely return to form of explosive opening batsman Quinton de Kock, who more than doubled his tournament tally after averaging less than nine prior to his unbeaten 78 off 57 balls.
“We all go through patches like he did in this tournament,” de Villiers said of de Kock.
“We’ve all been in dark spaces and I think he has been in this tournament.
“A lot of credit to the selectors, to the coach, the guys who kept backing him.
“I think they must have been tempted a few times to let him go and maybe for me to take the gloves, but it was a great call from them to stick with him.”
De Villiers felt Morkel had taken on more responsibility as one of the leaders of the South African bowling unit.
“He walks the talk, he’s very confident, and I don’t think you’ve always seen that in his career,” de Villiers said.
“So the fact that he’s lifted a trophy with Kolkata in the IPL, maybe played a big part in him really believing that he actually can play a big role in teams winning cups.
“He’s playing a huge role in the bowling team believing that they can run through sides.”
