De Villiers insists triumphant England `not unbeatable`

Johannesburg : South Africa captain AB de Villiers has insisted that buoyant England side are ‘not unbeatable’ despite trailing 0-2 against the tourists in the five-match one-day international series.

Alex Hales laid the foundation and then Jos Buttler, who scored a match-winning century in the opening game, played another key innings to give England victory by five wickets with 22 balls to spare in the second ODI at St. George’s Park on Saturday.

“England are a good side. They are playing some good cricket at the moment, they look confident but they are not unbeatable,” de Villiers was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The swashbuckling batsman also rued his side’s failure to accelerate innings towards the end and convert good starts into big totals. However, he remains upbeat about their chances of staging fightback in the current series.

“We had a couple of opportunities in both the games we played and I know it sounds like I am singing the same song from the Test matches but it’s true, it’s a matter of getting it right and taking our opportunities. In Bloemfontein we had a chance to get it right, I knew that rain was going to come and we didn’t get the timing right. Today again, we had the opportunity to take them down and unfortunately it didn’t happen that way,” the captain added.

After winning the preceding Test series, England now have the chance to seal the series in the third match at SuperSport Park on Tuesday and hand South Africa their first home defeat in both Tests and ODIs against the same opposition in 14 years. (ANI)