de villiers

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (AP):

A.B. DE VILLIERS is under no illusions about what to expect.

The South African opener, who may have unwittingly entered into the feud between Sunil Gavaskar and Ricky Ponting over the Australian team's behaviour, is expecting to be verbally assailed in the last Group A match at Warner Park tomorrow.

"When you're playing against Australia you know you're going to get a bit of abuse,, but I'm fine with that," De Villiers said yesterday. "A cricketgame without abuse is not a cricket game. I actually enjoy that - I see it as a challenge. People go hard at you in the field, but that's great. That's part of the game."

De Villiers is one of the few players to have a higher one-day batting average against Australia (36.20) than overall (33.79), but he's not satisfied with the size of each innings against the reigning champions.

"I've made three or four 50s against them at a run a ball," he said. "After I get through that pressure period, I have to make big runs and not throw my wicket away - I've given it away too many times."

Growing poise

Although still developing as a batsman, De Villiers feels that South Africa's rise to the top of the ICC's limited-overs rankings is a sure sign of their growing poise against the team they deposed: Australia.

Australia may have won once and tied once with South Africa on their way to winning the 1999 World Cup, but De Villiers points to recent results, like last year's 3-2 series win at home, as proof they can beat Australia.

"For us to come to the World Cup with scars will be stupid because we have pulled it together," he said. "In the one-day series in South Africa, it was 2-2, and then it was the big game when the Aussies got 434 and we went on to make 438. We've got to go out there and show that we're No. 1 in the world."

Ponting also believes it's time South Africa showed the world they can perform when it's expected to.

"Maybe some of the pressure is on them now, maybe we can go in as the underdogs and let them be the favourites we've been," Ponting said.

De Villiers, who jokes that he calls himself A.B. because he can't remember his full name (Abraham Benjamin), thinks the loss for Australia of strike bowler Brett Lee cannot be compensated by Shaun Tait's raw speed.

"I know Tait's got a lot of pace too, but Lee is an awesome bowler that they've lost," De Villiers said. "They've lost a great bowler who can swing the new ball at pace, which obviously allows you to pick up a few wickets upfront."

It's a point that even Ponting is willing to concede.

Lee "has got a very good record against South Africa, particularly early on and particularly against Graeme Smith," Ponting said. "We're not going to be better off without Brett, who is one of the best in the world, but if the other guys bowl as well as they can then hopefully we won't miss him too much."