Du Plessis says South Africa fear nobody

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP):

South Africa allrounder Faf du Plessis struck a confident note yesterday when he said the Proteas should have too much depth in every department for World Cup quarter-final opponent New Zealand to counter, providing his team maintains its form.

South Africa have emerged as the team to beat since prevailing in a tight match against co-host India, topping Group B to set up Friday's knockout match with New Zealand.

"I'm happy with playing New Zealand,'' Du Plessis said. "Even if we were playing any of the other teams, we wouldn't have been too worried. We specifically said we didn't want to focus on who we're playing and have our minds distracted.

"If we prepare well and we're ready for the game and play to our full ability, we're confident we'll win the quarter-final.''

South Africa have been in this position before, most notably in 1999 when they were strong in the early stages but contrived to tie the semi-final against Australia - despite only needing one run to win with four balls remaining - and missing out on the final due to run-rate.

Apart from one hiccup against England, South Africa have looked like one of the best all-round sides at the tournament and the pressure is once again on the team to break their World Cup duck, but players like the 26-year-old Du Plessis are unaffected by past failures.

Du Plessis made his South Africa debut in January and is now preparing for only his 10th international match.

Making mistakes

"If you think about making mistakes you're not going to play your best game,'' he said. "Even when we were in tough situations (during the group stage), guys played with freedom and got us out of that hole.

"We're not going to put too much emphasis on it being a quarter-final or whatever. It's just another game and if we do the things we've been doing, we'll win the game.''

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has declared he will be ready to face South Africa after missing two games with a knee injury, while Kyle Mills is also hoping to shake off a thigh problem.

New Zealand ended up fourth in Group A after an up-and-down campaign. The Kiwis beat Pakistan, but were comprehensively beaten by Australia and Sri Lanka.

"It's frustrating when you see the same errors repeated over and over again,'' coach John Wright was quoted as saying yesterday. "You must learn from your mistakes and that's all I want really.''