AB de Villiers: I am proud of the way we performed under pressure

While South Africa have carried the tag of chokers for a long time, they managed to shed that in the tri-series final in Zimbabwe as they defeated Australia by 6 wickets. AB de Villiers was a delighted skipper after South Africa's comfortable win and said his team worked very hard for it.

"Credit to Australia for a competitive series and thanks to my boys for that (winning the tri-series). We had to work really hard for it. We've played here for more than a month," he said.

While Australia lost a couple of early wickets, they weren't too badly placed, with Aaron Finch having crossed fifty and having the in-form Mitchell Marsh for company. Just when they were looking to up the ante though, Dale Steyn came up with a terrific spell, getting rid of Finch and Glenn Maxwell in quick succession to leave Australia in a lot of trouble.

Praising Steyn (4/34) for his fine performance with the ball which helped South Africa restrict Australia to 217/9, de Villiers said: "Both teams got it to reverse, our bowlers just showed more skill. Credit to them (the bowlers), I am very proud of the way we performed under pressure."

Chasing 218 can sometimes be tricky but that was not the case in this game as Faf du Plessis hit a fine 96 and was supported well by Hashim Amla (51) and de Villiers (57*). Praising du Plessis for his responsible innings, the Proteas skipper said: "Lots of credit to Faf, we could build our innings around him. I really wanted to be there at the end, we wanted to extend it and taking it nice and deep (that's why we sent in Parnell)."

When asked about the road ahead for South Africa, de Villiers said: "The fact that we are starting to win games under pressure shows we are on the right track, but there is definitely room for improvement. That's a cliche, everyone says that, but that's the fact. We want to get things 100% right for the big tournaments."

Steyn was named the Man of the Match for his splendid bowling performance and the South African pace spearhead said he was eager to get some wickets in the big game, having picked up only 6 in the four games before this.

"I was looking for some wickets, to get some in a final, a cup game, it was good. I always try to take wickets, that's the main thing. Fortunate enough to get the ball go through in the air. Today I was lucky that I was able to find the length that I was looking for. The fuller length was always going to be crucial. I decided that's the way to go," he said.

du Plessis, who was in splendid form with the bat in this series, scoring three hundreds before narrowly missing out on one in the final, was named the Player of the Tournament. The right-hander, who took a liking to the number 3 position, amassed 464 runs in 5 games at an average of 92.80.

"I enjoyed it (batting at number 3). It's a position I wanted to make my own. It's a nice patch where I feel I'm hitting the ball well. Lucky to have made a contribution to a win. Obviously batting at 3 in Tests helped me. I'm really enjoying my role there," du Plessis said.

"I felt that the second hundred against Australia where we lost was where I was hitting the ball really well. But we lost and it's never a nice feeling. Today would've been a special one, but I missed out. I'm really blessed to have got three hundreds in the series," he added.

Australia captain, George Bailey, while giving credit to the South African bowlers, felt his team were 70-80 runs short. "No it wasn't (when asked if the score of 217 was enough). It was 70 or 80 short. Full credit to South Africa, they got the ball to reverse. Disappointing to lose, but happy to admit we were outplayed. Their spinners were really accurate, all our top five got starts, but we needed a partnership."

Bailey was satisfied with Australia's overall performance in the series, mentioning that there were a lot of positives. "It will stand us in good stead going forward (Australia's performance). There are plenty of positives to take from here, Kane Richardson, Phil Hughes and Mitchell Marsh - the young guns did well."