Cricket World Cup: South Africa won't choke - AB de Villiers

South African captain AB De Villiers talks with teammates during their Cricket World Cup Pool B match against Ireland in Canberra. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

South Africa captain AB de Villiers is adamant his team won't produce another Cricket World Cup choke in Wednesday's quarterfinal against a Sri Lankan side claiming home advantage and chasing a third straight final appearance.

The Proteas go into the Sydney Cricket Ground encounter having never won a knockout CWC match - a sorry statistic which led to them being tagged chokers on the biggest stage. They have reached the CWC knockout stages five times.

"I haven't thought about that very often, all I can say is we're not going to choke," de Villiers said at his pre-match media conference at the SCG on Wednesday.

"We're just going to play a good game of cricket tomorrow and come out on top."

Sri Lanka appear to have a more successful formula, having finished runners-up in the last two tournaments.

Captain Angelo Mathews said the key was not to put pressure on themselves and play positively and aggressively.

"I think that when you come to the knockout stages, most of the teams will think that you can't afford to do mistakes or you'll be out of the tournament," Mathews said.

"That kind of attitude is hard to get rid of. You have to play good cricket, back yourselves and go out there and enjoy ourselves."

Unlike Sri Lanka, South Africa opted against training on Tuesday, with de Villiers seeking to keep his players fresh for the game.

"I believe we play really good cricket when we feel fresh and we are mentally fresh and we just play the pressure situations so much better," de Villiers said.

While de Villiers reported no injury worries, Sri Lanka looked like it could be without key spinner Rangana Herath for a third straight game due to a finger injury.

Mathews rated Herath a 50-50 chance before training, but the offspinner bowled only five balls in the nets on Tuesday.

He said his team really enjoyed playing in Sydney, where their boisterous fans made more noise than the local supporters in the recent pool game against Australia.

"If you play at the MCG or SCG it's like playing at home," Mathews said.

World No 1 ranked ODI batsman de Villiers leads his side against a Sri Lankan team featuring red-hot Kumar Sangakarra, who has scored a record four successive CWC centuries.

"I couldn't care less about him or me, I just want to win the game of cricket tomorrow," de Villiers said.

"If our No 11 batsman tomorrow wins us the game, so be it."

Mathews suggested Sri Lanka would struggle if it didn't dismiss de Villiers cheaply.

"We all know that he's such a destructive player, we need to try to get rid of him as early as we can or else we'll be in trouble," Mathews said.

He said it was important his top four scored runs against the Proteas, but stressed his team needed to lift in other areas.

"We haven't been at our best in our bowling and fielding and the batters have been pretty good, so hopefully they can continue and we can improve on our bowling and fielding in tomorrow's game," Mathews said.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: SOUTH AFRICA VS SRI LANKA

2015 tournament record: South Africa, 4-2 (second group B), Sri Lanka 4-2 (third, group A)

Total ODI head-to-head record: South Africa 28, Sri Lanka 29, 1 tie, 1 no result

World Cup head-to-head record: South Africa 2 Sri Lanka 1, 1 tied

Head-to-head ODI record in Australia: South Africa 2 Sri Lanka 2

2015 tournament leading run-scorer: South Africa: AB de Villiers 417 (third), Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakarra 496 (first)

2015 tournament leading wicket-taker: South Africa: Morne Morkel 13 (eighth), Sri Lanka Lasith Malinga 11 (12th).

- AAP