‘Over-thinking’ Proteas hurt after series defeat

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South Africa one-day captain AB de Villiers believes the Proteas were guilty of "over-thinking" during their 4-1 series loss to Australia.

The Aussies swept to a commanding victory over the South Africans on Sunday, when their two-wicket victory over the tourists in Sydney saw them regain the number one ranking in the format as well.

"Obviously, we're hurting. It's not ideal and it's not what we planned to do," De Villiers said after the loss, even though he did not play in the final match of the series.

"Maybe we over-thought things; maybe we've been over-analysing things a little bit.

"Sometimes when you talk about something a bit too much, you put so much emphasis on it that pressure on yourself that you do funny things in those situations. 

"We put a lot of emphasis on powerplays. I put a lot of emphasis on our fielding and those were the areas that let us down quite a bit. 

"Maybe I must stop talking about the little things we mustn't do and start talking about the things we should do. 

"Had we done the basics a bit better, we probably could have won more than just one game. 

"It's very disappointing knowing that we didn't do the basics well. It's the kind of thing a consistent cricket team needs to do to be successful all the time. 

"It was just a poor performance all round – inconsistent. There is nothing more to say really. We know the areas that we need to work on. 

"We know more or less which players to rely on in pressure situations and we've got a better idea of our World Cup squad moving forward." 

The Proteas' next 50-over matches are in January next year, at home against the West Indies, before the World Cup starts in Australia and New Zealand in February.

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