De Villiers fears 'slow' MCG pitch will neutralise Proteas' pace advantage against India

South Africa cricket team captain AB de Villiers has asked his batsmen to revel on the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Sunday's World Cup clash against defending champions India as he fears that it would not favour his fast bowlers.

Ahead of the Pool B game that is most likely to lift the winner into the quarterfinals, De Villiers said that he has played there in the past and he has never played at the MCG with a lot of pace and bounce.

The skipper said that it's always been quite slow, which doesn't suit South Africa that well, The Dawn reported.

South Africa's bowling attack features the impressive pace trio of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

De Villiers said that the last game they played there against Australia in November was one of the slowest wickets he had ever batted on. He said that at night maybe it skids on a little bit more, but added that also one gets value for their shots a little bit more.

The skipper said that it's certainly not a quick wicket, so he added that they would have to adapt as quickly as possible, assess the conditions and try and get the momentum on their side.

De Villiers' views contradicted those of India vice-captain Virat Kohli, who said the hard MCG wicket had more bounce than many other pitches in Australia.