Captain’s talk

'South Africa will not choke'

"All I can say is we're not going to choke. We're just going to play a good game of cricket tomorrow and come out on top. Simple," said de Villiers at the pre-match press conference.

"There's enough laughing, there's enough stress, there's enough nerves, there's good cricket, there's enough bad cricket. We've got a mixture of everything on the team. We've just got to find a way to win tomorrow," he said.

"We have certain strengths that we like to focus on. Strike with a new ball, try and bowl them out and if we bat first, try and get a big total and put them under pressure. No one is going to ask us if we played exceptiol cricket when we win the World Cup, we're just going to say that we won the Cup," said de Villiers.

"We know exactly what's coming tomorrow. It's an important game. It's exactly what we've been working for the last 2-3 years. We're very prepared for this and just ready to go."

'Need to get rid of de Villiers early'

“AB is such a destructive player. We need to try to get rid of him as early as we can or else we'll be in trouble. When he gets going, it's really hard to stop him,” Mathews said at the pre-match press conference here on Tuesday.

“Both teams will be nervous for sure. We all know that South Africans are a very hard team to beat, especially in this tourment. They've come out really hard and they have a good, balanced team. We have to go out there and perform well to beat the South Africans," said Mathews.

The young captain also banks on the support from the crowd, saying, “If you play at MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) or SCG it's like playing at home, most of the Sri Lankans across Australia or across the world, they fly into Sydney and give immense support for us. So we really enjoy playing in Sydney.”

“It's such a wonderful atmosphere and we invite all the Sri Lankans across Australia to come to Sydney and fill up those stands.”