'The pressure got to us' - Duminy

Chasing in major tournaments does to South Africa's strategy what most of us want to do to our eggs in the morning - scramble them. Now, for the first time, someone on the inside has admitted as much.

"When you find yourself in that pressure moment, the last thing you think about is the team game plan because it gets too big for you," JP Duminy said. "We are human. We make mistakes but that's not an excuse. We get chosen to represent our country and to play on this big stage. This is what international cricket is about - performing in those big moments. There are one or two guys who are getting it right as individuals but we are not getting it right as a team."

South Africa have had "two," big games at this World Cup - against India and Pakistan - they've batted second in both and lost both.

Of the players getting it right, few truly stand out. AB de Villiers does though. He threatened to win the Auckland game all on his own despite what he described as a lack of intensity from his team-mates and Duminy wants to put that right.

"AB showed major fight in the way he played. That's what we ask of ourselves. To show that grit and fight and never-say-die attitude. We were below par in terms of that mindset. Bar AB, we didn't show any fight. The pressure just got to us. We didn't stick to any game plans. There were a few soft dismissals. Guys got in and didn't take it through," Duminy said. "As a captain, I can only expect AB to be angry, He tried to lead from the front... and we just never followed. We take full responsibility."

Duminy identified himself as one of the "culprits," who "felt like I got in but threw my wicket away." With a partnership building and the required run-rate under control, Duminy went for a big shot off the dangerous Mohammad Irfan, and ended up holing out. That misplaced urgency was a mistake which Duminy recognised "will happen in one's career but can't happen in big games like that."

The upside for South Africa is that, important as the two group games were, the losses will not have a significant effect on their progress.

"The beauty of this tournament is that you always have another opportunity in the group stage and luckily for us we are still in that group stage," Duminy said. "We need to make sure that we are up for the fight when it comes to that knockout phase."

But the knockouts is where South Africa have unravelled at every World Cup before this one - except 2003 when they did not reach that stage - and so far they have provided no evidence that things will be different. They have also provided no evidence that they know what to do to ensure things will be different. The most de Villiers could offer was that he is "not sure," why South Africa are poor chasers when it matters most.

Duminy's explanation was that they "deter too much" from their plans when batting second compared to when they bat first and he urged his team-mates to remember what works when they set a target, rather than hunt one down. "We set up the game for the back end with wickets in hand, guys scoring hundreds," he said. "But every time we find ourselves batting [second] we've not stuck to it. Guys haven't been scoring hundreds, partnerships haven't been there. If we are going to be successful in chasing, we need t find a way to stick to those strategies and plans."

And while they do that, Duminy has also warned against over-thinking or transferring blame and advised moving on quickly if they hope to be successful at the later stages.

"That hurt is always going to be there and if we find ourselves in a similar situation it's always going to be at the back of our mind. To get away from that, we need to try and focus on something else,"he said. "We need to make sure we stick together as a team. These sort of defeats can break you mentally. We need to understand it's all part of the course. No great teams have gone through no hiccups. We have come short many a time batting second but we haven't come short in the quarterfinal. It hasn't happened yet. There is still an opportunity for us to get it right. It's all about the comeback."