BASSETERRE: 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 on Saturday.

``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 on Thursday. ``A cricket game 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.''

Higher average

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.''

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 its growing poise against the team it deposed: Australia.

Australia may have won once and tied once with South Africa on its 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 it can beat Australia. — AP

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