AB De Villiers believes Proteas are among World Cup favorites

Johannesburg: South Africa ODI captain AB de Villiers believes that his team would be favourites for the World Cup, despite suffering a 4-1 series loss to Australia on Sunday.

De Villiers said that playing in their home country, Australia would be one of the favourites, but added that he still believe South Africa is the better team, and they would be the team to beat at the World Cup.

South Africa managed just the one win in the series against Australia, chasing a moderate score of 155 to win in the second ODI. However, De Villiers said that the matches against the World Cup co-hosts were closer than the series scoreline suggested, Sport24 reported.

He said that there's absolutely no doubt in his mind that they are the better team. He added that South Africa didn't play the big moments as well as they wanted to, admitting that he really believe they could've beaten Australia 4-1 on another day, but it's easy to say that now.

De Villiers was the top run-scorer in the series with 274 runs at an average of 67.75, but said that he was disappointed he was unable to help his side in winning. He said that he obviously scored some runs in this series but added that he has never really been a guy to look at that side of things.

The skipper claimed that he is quite hard on himself when it comes to finishing off games and winning games for the team, which he didn't do in this series.

He admitted that he got out at some crucial times during the series, so did all the batters around him, and added that they didn't have a great series with the bat.

South African coach Russell Domingo echoed the sentiments of his captain when it came to his assessment of the tussle with the Aussies. He said that it was a tough tour and the scoreline margin was not a true reflection on the closeness of series.