'We were stuck in 2nd gear'

South Africa captain AB de Villiers took responsibility for the shock 29-run World Cup loss to Pakistan on Saturday, blasting his team for being stuck in "second or third gear".

De Villiers fought a lone hand in South Africa's 202 in 33.3 overs with a brilliant 58-ball 77 including five sixes and seven boundaries.

But chasing a revised target of 232, the Proteas were undone by Pakistan's trio of left-arm seamers who thwarted de Villiers's hopes of wrapping up a quarterfinal place before the last round of pool games next week.

"I'm not blaming anyone. I'm not saying anyone didn't have the energy. I just didn't feel any electric vibe at the warm-up," said de Villiers.

"That is normally a bit of an alarm bell going off for me. It is my responsibility to try to get the guys going, which I couldn't, so maybe I should take responsibility for that.

"I just could feel that nothing was really happening at a hundred per cent. It was almost like a car that's stuck in second or third gear, and that's not going to win you cricket games, especially not under pressure and in big tournaments like this.

"So we need to have a chat about what maybe went wrong tonight and try to get to fifth gear again against the UAE," said de Villiers, of their concluding pool game in Wellington on Thursday.

De Villiers described the loss as "disappointing."

"Once again we seemed to not get enough partnerships in pressure situations. We've done it in the past, but unfortunately tonight we couldn't do that, so it's a very disappointing loss," he admitted.

"I felt that Pakistan wanted it more than us. There's nothing wrong with the batting. It's just a matter of urgency and being prepared to fight it out."