De Villiers: I see Tahir as a match-winner

2015 World Cup

Cricket365
February 22, 2015

South Africa captain AB de Villiers has confirmed that spinner Imran Tahir will play in their crunch World Cup Pool B encounter against India at the MCG on Sunday.

There had been talk in the build-up to the match that the Proteas might play with an all out pace attack, as India's batsmen generally struggle to cope with the extra bounce.

De Villiers however feels that Tahir, who was the pick of the bowlers in the Proteas' opening win of the tournament against Zimbabwe, should be bowled at the right times in the game for him to be successful.

The South Africa captain told reporters: "He's been one of our best bowlers over the last two years. There's no way that, unless there's some funny injury over the next 24 hours, that he's not going to play. I see him as a match-winner against any team in the world.

"It's a matter of bowling him at the right times, and that's my job, to make sure he bowls at the right times in order to give him the best opportunity to win us games, and that's what he's best at doing."

De Villiers also on commented on the impact that former Australia batsman Mike Hussey has had on the squad since he joined them as a consultant.

The Proteas' skipper said: "He's given us advice, yeah. Everything we covered the last few days when it comes to the analysis of the conditions, what to expect, what not to expect, we covered pretty much all of that.

"He was just there to give us some confirmation that we are on the right track. He let us know when we were talking nonsense, as well. It's just nice to have him around, a guy with great experience, a guy that's won a World Cup before."