De Villiers brands 'struggling' Proteas 'best team' in 2015 CWC

South Africa cricket team captain AB de Villiers has downplayed his side's struggles, claiming that they are the best team in the World Cup and insisting that they are just three games away from taking the coveted trophy home.

Despite being smashed by India and upset by Pakistan, skipper De Villiers isn't disheartened and takes strength from those losses, saying that the South African squad is past that now.

De Villiers said that he 100 percent believe that they are the best team in the tournament there, Fox Sports reported.

The skipper said that those two losses against India and Pakistan in the group stage did hurt them a bit but he added that they are past that now. He insisted that they know where they could have won those games and claimed that they weren't that far off.

The swashbuckling batsman said that they know they are very close, three games away from taking that World Cup home. He claimed that the most important game is against the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, but added that they know they are not far off so it's important to be positive and still believe that South Africa is the best.

South Africa is in fact ranked third by the ICC in one-day cricket and while De Villiers himself has provided some moments of magnificent batting, his team would need to lift enormously to claim a maiden World Cup. De Villiers said team balance was an ongoing issue.

The skipper said that that's the difficult decision most teams have to make at this World Cup - an extra batter or an extra bowler, adding that the last few games they have gone for the extra batter, admitting that against India they went for the extra bowler. He said that both times they lost so it's a difficult one.