Woeful West Indies must banish De Villiers-led nightmare

SYDNEY (Reuters) - When a team has been destroyed by a special knock like the one AB de Villiers conjured up against West Indies on Friday, it can make it easy to explain a defeat away. But the manner of West Indies' 257-run loss to South Africa on Friday -- the joint worst in World Cup history -- would worry West Indies skipper Jason Holder. Five weeks after blazing a world record 31-ball century against West Indies, De Villiers smashed 162 not out off 66 balls as if he was on a mission to redefine one-day batsmanship. He was aided by unimaginative bowling and sloppy fielding by the twice world champion West Indians who collapsed under the weight of South Africa's mountainous total of 408 for five. "We dropped chances, we did not make it easy for us," Holder said at the presentation ceremony after his team crumbled to 151 all out in the 34th over. "Psychologically, chasing 400 was always a tough task. If we had held on to one or two chances in the end, we could have chased 350 which would have been an easier total to look up." When De Villiers was going berserk, West Indies bowlers could not get their yorkers right, did not try to bounce him out and Chris Gayle, who disappointed with the bat but was the pick of the bowlers, was not used again after claiming two wickets in four overs. To make it worse, they dropped a number of catches towards the end of the innings to allow De Villiers and Farhaan Behardien to plunder 80 runs off 3.2 overs. Adding to their misery, batsman Darren Bravo's World Cup campaign was cut short by a hamstring injury and the player will return home. The priority for Holder now is to put the nightmare day behind them before they face holders India in their next Pool B match on March 6. "We're very confident we can make the quarter-finals. Just need to play good cricket against India first and then take it from there," Holder added.