Want to brush off India loss - Amla

Hashim Amla has urged South Africa not to overreact after their defeat to India on Sunday and pinned their uncharacteristic blow-out at the MCG on "a few mistakes" from which they could "move on" fast.

"Everybody in the team has played enough to know that you do win and lose games. There can only be one winner and one loser. So, let's not get too dramatic about it," Amla said in Sydney, where South Africa are preparing to face West Indies. "We didn't play good cricket, but we take the knock on the chin. We know we have a few more games in the round-robin phase, and guys have been playing well. So we don't want to dwell too much on it. But going into the next game we certainly know we've got to perform better."

South Africa's 130-run loss on Sunday was their worst at a World Cup, while batting second, but it is not likely to have a significant impact on whether they qualify for the knockout stages. At worst, it could impact where they finish in the group and who they face in the quarter-finals, but for Amla that does not really matter.

"You want to finish as high as possible but if you qualify for the quarter-final, so be it," Amla said. "If you want to win a World Cup you're going to need to play the best teams to win it. There's no trying to avoid anybody."

Instead of focusing on opposition they will face only in three weeks' time, South Africa are concentrating on the aspect of their game they need to improve now: top-order batting. It's a concern South Africa seemed unlikely to have, especially with the likes of Amla and AB de Villiers in their ranks, and one they tried to brush off as nothing serious after the showing against Zimbabwe.

In the aftermath of that game, where they thundered to 339 after being reduced to 83 for 4, de Villiers was right to defend his frontmen. He reminded critics that the top four were precisely the reason South Africa had won matches in the past and if the sometimes soft middle order had hardened up enough to make up for it when they didn't, there was actually a lot to be pleased about.

All that was reversed against India, when South Africa recovered from a stumbling start but were then shot out for under 200 and lost 7 for 44 along the way. Amla called it a one-off.

"We didn't manage to string enough big partnerships closely together and we lost wickets at key times. Things like that happen," he said. "You don't want it to happen, and fortunately over the last few years it hasn't happened to us too often - getting bowled out for 150 or 160. We just want to brush it off, take the knock on our chin, and get our heads up for the next game."

That change will have to stem from the top, where the partnership between Amla and de Kock is yet to show what it is capable of. In 32 innings together, Amla and de Kock have scored 1551 runs at an average of 48.46; at the World Cup, they have managed just 10 and 12 with de Kock appearing out of touch and Amla fumbling instead of playing fluently. Both problems, Amla hopes, are temporary.

"I'd love to score runs every game but I don't think it's possible. It's been a slow start and hopefully it gets better. I'm feeling good. Everybody goes through a few games in which they don't score runs," he said. "Quinny is striking the ball really well. On any given day, he can kick into first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth gear. Although he hasn't got many runs I don't think anybody in the team is too concerned with him not getting enough batting time because he does hit a lot of balls in the nets and he does put a lot of care into his batting.'

Since his comeback from an ankle ligament tear, which was expected to keep him out for up to three months and two games of the World Cup but healed in a month, de Kock has only had one score over 20 in seven innings. That came in a warm-up game against Sri Lanka in Christchurch, when he made 66, and Shaun Pollock believes de Kock could still be working through the lack of match time in his own mind.

"Quinton would have loved to have a nice series against West Indies before coming to the World Cup. He is probably a bit short on match time. It's more from a mental perspective because technically we know what he can do," Pollock said. "It's about trying to get into the rhythm."

Luckily for de Kock, and for South Africa, there is still some time to do that. "The round-robin phase does allow you, if you do have a hiccup like we did on Sunday, some time to get back and align everything in the right way," Amla said. "But it's still early in the competition." So, as they say in Australia, for Amla there are "no big dramas at the moment."