“English bowlers getting much more reverse swing than others is a cause of concern if it is because of ball tampering,” says South African skipper AB De Villiers on the eve of the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. England’s batting has misfired at occasions and De Villiers, would like his premier bowler Chris Morris to exploit that if Dale Steyn fails to make it to the playing eleven due to injury. Stylish right-handed batsman wants his team to remove the tag of chokers which has been associated with them from a very long time.
De Villiers, however, restrained from making direct allegations regarding ball tampering that were made against the English team and was quoted by DNA saying, "If they are doing something funny with the ball, then it's definitely a concern, yes, but we've got no proof of that. Look, they seem to get it to reverse a bit quicker than the rest of the teams. So maybe they've just got really good skill in their bowlers," de Villiers told reporters on the eve of the match.”
He added, "We've tried, as well I think all teams try to do that, and we haven't really managed to succeed in that, but we'll try that again tomorrow and see if our bowlers can find that skill to reverse the ball. It's something that the umpires and the ICC will probably look into why England and some of the other teams might get it to reverse quicker.”
Though the Proteas might miss the services of their best bowler Dale Steyn but AB De Villiers is not making a fuss about it and he believes that his team can still do wonders with whatever resources they have. South African captain was quoted by Deccan Chronicle saying, "We've won games without him and with him. It's a semi-final game. It's a big knock-out game and there will be a lot of pressure around, a lot of hype. Not having him on the side will be big for us, but then again, like I said, we're playing good cricket and we're confident we can beat England without Steyn.”
Steyn did have a game against Windies but he didn’t hit the nets before the semis. De Villiers knows the importance of him and was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, "He's obviously one of the best in the world, and he's good against any team in any format. He's taking another day off just to make sure we rest him really well, managing his workload really well, and hopefully we can have him on the park. He's close to 100 per cent, he's running around."
Innovative batsman did play the usual mind-games before the knock-out match and was quoted by Deccan Herald saying, "I believe last two matches were big crunch games which might give us a lot of confidence, and I believe we can beat them. But yeah, if they're playing in front of the home crowd, I think all the pressure is on them. We'll make sure we do the basics well, like I said before, and if things go our way we'll end up on top."
Wicket-keeping batsman was quoted by Indian Express saying, "Unless we win this tournament, people will say you're chokers, so no matter what happens, it's something we've dealt with. I think we're very comfortable with it in the team. We know what we're capable as a team, we're in a very good space. We're not thinking of stuff like that. It's not something that really bothers us at the moment." According to de Villiers, it will be the "team who rocks up here with the right attitude who can take that momentum early on and run with it".
"Swing is not something I am bothered about but yes movement which can play significant role in first half and hour or so. But as the day progresses, it will get slow which will nullify the earlier advantages. We'll be looking to do exactly that, adapt to conditions as quickly as possible, and we're just going to enjoy the experience tomorrow," he concluded.