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I'm still in good form, insists South Africa captain De Villiers

South Africa captain AB de Villiers in Champions Trophy action

Captain AB de Villiers has defended his form following a disappointing Champions Trophy as South Africa prepare to face India in a crunch clash at The Oval on Sunday.

After making four runs in his side's comfortable victory over Sri Lanka, De Villiers recorded his first golden duck in ODI cricket in the rain-affected loss to Pakistan on Wednesday.

South Africa will be knocked out of the tournament if they lose to India and De Villiers insisted he is not feeling the pressure, despite facing questions about his leadership at a pre-match press conference.

"Look, I'm still in good form," De Villiers told reporters on Saturday. "Still hitting the ball well, as always. It's just a matter of going out there and doing it.

"There's nothing I can say here that's going to change anything except for that I still believe I can and hopefully I'll prove that.

"But I'm very excited with this opportunity for the team and for myself on the big stage to go and just enjoy what we do best, to play cricket and to enjoy each other's company out there. So we're very excited about tomorrow."

Opposite number Virat Kohli has also recorded a duck at the Champions Trophy and De Villiers is looking forward to facing his Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate.

"He's a world-class player. He's difficult to stop when he gets going," De Villiers added. "So our plans will be around trying to unsettle him early on in his innings, like any other world-class batter, really.

"If you don't get them out early, they can do some damage. He just does it really well when he gets going. He can really hurt you, hurt your bowling attack and take the game away from you."

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