Johannesburg: Despite out playing India in the first ODI, the South African captain AB de Villiers has asked his teammates to remain grounded as the visitors can bounce back in the remaining two games.
South Africa beat India by 141 runs yesterday in the opening ODI after piling up 358/4 here.
de Villiers said in a post-match press conference that the strategy worked out in the dressing room was executed to perfection on the field but it doesn't mean that we are certainly going to win the series. There is a lot of hard work to be done. Durban will be a lot more suited to the Indians and they can bounce back. So it is important to keep our feet on the ground.
Despite the hammering his batsmen handed out to Indian bowlers, de Villiers felt the visitors cannot be called bad.
"India are certainly not a poor bowling line up. They do have the skill but they bowled a little bit short in the first five or ten overs. That gave us a big boost and confidence, and some momentum going forward," he explained.
"Not losing wickets in the first 10 overs at the Wanderers is always huge, no matter how many runs you score. It sets you up nicely for the last 40 overs and that is what happened today. It is quite handy keeping wickets in hand especially against a team like India," said de Villiers.
With this win, the hosts go 1-0 up in the three-match ODI series. The focus now shifts to the second ODI in Durban on Sunday and Team India will be under immense pressure not to concede the series there itself.
"It was certainly very important for us to start off the series like that. It is not easy for sub-continental teams to tour South Africa. It is important to never allow them to get any momentum going ahead. So this first game was always going to be important in that sense," de Villiers said.
South Africa piling on a huge total was mainly down to two partnerships -- the opening pair of Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, and later when JP Duminy and the skipper himself got together, battering India in the death overs.
