South Africa's self-belief has been dented by what AB de Villiers called an "almost embarrassing" loss to India in their second, and most high-profile, match of the group stage. His men were left red-faced by the margin of the defeat, their first by more than 100 runs in 37 matches dating back to July 2013 and their heaviest loss at a World Cup.

"You always want to be competitive. We pride ourselves on that. We are going to have to lick our wounds for a while," de Villiers said. "With a loss like this, your confidence takes a bit of a knock and it's up to the senior group of players to make sure the confidence is still there. Little things can creep into your game if you think about too much but we will have a mature and honest chat about it."

All that will come only after what de Villiers called a "pretty dark" night has passed in which he hopes the team will reflect on what went wrong. "I don't want to think about it now. I just want to to feel sad in my room for a while," he said.

Among the things de Villiers was most unhappy about were the run-outs which changed the course of South Africa's chase. "Two runs outs absolutely unacceptable in the top six," de Villiers said. "Me and David Miller sat on the side of the field, not even being dismissed by a bowler, which was disappointing."

Both batsmen were found short of their ground by pin-point throws from the boundary-riders, whose arms they chanced only because the target was so steep. "You feel the pressure chasing 300 plus so you take on shots that you might not normally take on and you go for second runs you might not normally go for," de Villiers said, referring to himself in the case of the latter. "India's fielding didn't surprise me. They are a team that always wants to win games. I expected them to be urgent. It was just poor running."

The line-up would not have been under such strain if the bowlers had done a better containing job but without Vernon Philander, who injured his hamstring for the bulk of the Indian innings, de Villiers was limited with his options. He had to use both JP Duminy and Wayne Parnell more than he would have liked and the left-arm pacer, in particular, let the rest down.

The 85 runs that came in his nine overs were the fourth-most conceded by a South African in ODIs and included 33 runs in three overs at the death. He was also guilty of conceding the most extras in the innings with two no-balls and four wides which will raise questions marks over why South Africa shortened their line-up by leaving Farhaan Behardien out to make room for Parnell.

De Villiers was harsh on the left-arm quick but also criticised the pack as a whole for allowing India to dictate proceedings. "Wayne got it wrong with his disciplines and his no-balls unacceptable," de Villiers said. "But all-round the bowling performance was pretty average, although I was happy with the way we pulled it back."

South Africa's sluggish start with both bat and ball could easily be explained by how stunned they may have been to find themselves inside a cauldron of opposition support. Although they knew the match was almost a sell-out and that most of the fans would be shouting for India, they had not actually experienced that many people and that much support for the other team before. If it affected them, de Villiers was not going to say so.

"If you want to be the best team in the world, you've got to win games wherever you play in the world. I felt like we had support as well," he said. "It's definitely not an excuse." Even if it was, admitting it may be the ultimate embarrassment.