Peterson hails South African bowlers

South African spinner Robin Peterson praises his side's efforts in the field after bowling out England for just 171.

CHENNAI: South African spinner Robin Peterson praised his side's efforts in the field after bowling out England for just 171 in their key World Cup clash on Sunday.

England, who won the toss at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and chose to bat, never properly recovered from a perilous 15 for three, and were bowled out in 45.4 overs.

Peterson, who opened the bowling and took 3-22 from eight overs, said he was "pretty confident" that South Africa could overhaul England's total and win their third straight match.

"I thought it (the pitch) would be quite nice and come onto the bat and I thought I'd need to change my pace a little bit more but it worked out nicely," said Peterson, who bowls left-arm orthodox.

"I was quite happy with the way the surface played up front. I think it's still a pretty good wicket though."

"I just tried to land the ball in a decent area and spin it as hard as I could. There's no miracle to what I do. I just try to land the ball and see what happens from there and luckily today it was my time," he added.

"I think obviously we did well for 50 overs. The bowlers did nicely. We're relatively satisfied but the game's 100 overs, unfortunately it's not for 50 overs, so we've got to get off to a good start and give ourselves a base and then see where we are from there."