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South Africa skipper feeling confident

South African captain AB de Villiers addresses a press conference. Photo: Getty Images

South Africa skipper feeling confident

AB de Villiers admits his team has choked in the past but feels confident ahead of ICC World T20

15 September 2012 - 04:16pm IST

South Africa captain AB de Villiers acknowledged on Saturday that his side has ‘choked’ in previous global events but believes that his side will be competitive in a tournament that he believes is wide open in terms of potential winners.

Speaking to the world’s media, following his side’s arrival in Colombo on Friday, de Villiers believes that there are a number of potential winners for the ICC World Twenty20 2012, which begins on Tuesday.

“There are lots of favourites and lots of really good teams. As we all know, Twenty20 cricket takes one or two overs to turn a game around. I think all the teams stand a really good chance, but I do rate our chances of doing well at this tournament,” said de Villiers.

“We have worked really hard and we have come in with fresh minds and a lot of hunger to succeed in this tournament.”

South Africa comes into the ICC World Twenty20 on the back of a successful tour of England, although it drew a rain-affected T20I series 1-1, which de Villiers believes provided useful preparation, particularly as there is the potential for the weather to affect some of the games in Sri Lanka.

“The conditions are going to be very different and it has always been on our mind properly for this event. The conditions weren’t ideal, except for the last game, which is close to what we are expecting here where the wicket was quite slow and it turned a lot,” said de Villiers.

“It was really nice to have the opportunity to adapt under pressure as I think we could find ourselves in a similar situation in Sri Lanka.

“Twenty20 games are very fast paced games and you need to adapt and think on your feet and I think our tour of England had exactly that.”

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