De Villiers disappointed with batting display

South Africa captain AB de Villiers was left disappointed by his team’s batting performance during their four-wicket loss in the opening one-day international of the West Indies Tri-Nation Series against the hosts.

The Windies tore through the tourists’ line-up in Guyana, with Sunil Narine taking a ODI career-best six wickets for 27 runs on his international return as the Proteas struggled to deal with his spin on a slow wicket.

But De Villiers said none of his side could blame the wicket after they did thorough preparation to deal with the Caribbean conditions.

“We were short of runs. We assessed the wicket well, but we let ourselves down with the bat,” the skipper said.

“The wicket was a bit slow, but I thought somewhere around 220 would have been a decent target.”

South Africa fell well short of that target, setting just 188 for the tourists to chase.

“Rilee [Rossouw] and I got into a nice partnership, but unfortunately I couldn’t carry on [after being caught and bowled by Jerome Taylor]. That was a great catch from Jerome,” he added.

De Villiers was also keen to praise West Indies’ bowlers, particularly Narine.

“The bowlers bowled exceptionally well,” he said.

“Sunil Narine is one of the best bowlers in the world and he is always tough to handle.

“We lost our way in the last 10 overs and hope we come back strong against Australia in the next game.”