AB de Villiers insists that the first Test against Australia will be "just another game" despite making his 50th successive appearance.
Proteas batsman set to play in his 50th successive Test
AB de Villiers insists that the first Test against Australia at the Wanderers will be "just another game" despite making his 50th successive appearance for the Proteas.
De Villiers follows Gary Kirsten, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis in playing in a half-century of Tests consecutively since debut.
However, despite reaching the milestone, de Villiers is just happy to be playing in the three-Test series.
"My 50th Test match is just another game. I've worked hard to get here and I think I am very lucky to have been in good nick and healthy," de Villiers said.
"I'm very happy to be playing my 50th Test and I'm just going to go out and enjoy it."
De Villiers made his Test bow in December 2004 - alongside Dale Steyn - in the Test defeat to England and he has gone on to scored 3,201 runs at an average of 41.57.
And having scored 362 runs in that opening series, De Villiers insists he has improved as player since then.
Mistakes
"I've gone through some patches, but I've learnt from my mistakes. I enjoy batting under pressure and taking responsibility," he said.
"The last two years I've been playing pretty good cricket, and I've enjoyed taking on more responsibility and pushing myself to new limits."
The stats back up de Villiers' claim, with the 25-year-old going to average 60.75 in the series win over Australia.
And although the Proteas are favourites to seal back-to-back wins over the Aussies, de Villiers insists it will not be easy.
"Australia are Australia. They're a very dangerous side," he said.
"At the moment, they're the number one Test team in the world, and they can beat anyone on any day.
"Expectations are very high after what we achieved in Australia, and there will be a lot of pressure on us, particularly from the South African public.
"We're just going to have to go out there and play the cricket we know we can play, and I'm sure we will be all right."
