South Africa batsman Hashim Amla insisted his team won’t panic despite their 130-run World Cup loss to defending champions India, while Friday’s clash against a rejuvenated West Indies can’t come round soon enough.
The Proteas, widely-regarded as one of the favourites for a first world title, suffered a sobering wake-up call against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last weekend after a far from convincing opening win over Zimbabwe.
“We are obviously disappointed, we didn’t play good cricket,” said Amla, who has yet to hit top gear after making 11 against Zimbabwe and then 22 in the Indian rout.
“The format of this tournament is such that you have to move on, that’s how we look at it. We made a few mistakes but the game is done and dusted and we certainly want to look ahead to the important match on Friday.”
Amla said South Africa have learnt their lessons ahead of Friday’s game at the Sydney Cricket Ground where they will face a West Indies team they defeated 4-1 at home in January.
“They won their last game,” Amla said of the West Indies who beat Zimbabwe on Tuesday on the back of Chris Gayle’s World Cup record double century.
“They are a dangerous team and you can never take them for granted. They are an explosive team, we had them in South Africa not long ago and showed that they can produce games where they fire, they have a lot of match-winners in their team,” said Amla.
“We are going to be treating them with the respect that we treat all teams.”
