Sydney, Feb 28 (IANS): South Africa skipper AB de Villiers backed his young West Indies counterpart Jason Holder to succeed as captain, saying he expects the Caribbean side to pose a threat in the ongoing cricket World Cup.

The 23-year-old Holder has had a rough initiation, suffering a 1-4 drubbing from South Africa in his first series at the helm and then enduring a shock four-wicket defeat to Ireland in the Windies' opening Pool B game. However, de Villiers praised Holder’s maturity and said he expected him to come through this tough period, reports CMC.

“He's actually a really nice guy. We've all been there. I've been there before in my career as well. Every captain goes through really tough games. That it was a really tough game for him but we had a tough game in the last one at Melbourne. That's part of the game," de Villiers said.

“I know for sure that he's mature enough to handle it. He's got enough teammates with experience around him to look after him and there's no doubt that the West Indies will bounce back. They're a classy unit and still a very dangerous team in this tournament.”

South Africa handed West Indies the joint worst-ever defeat in World Cup history Friday when they thrashed them by 257 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground here. De Villiers was the architect behind the victory, plundering a 66-ball unbeaten 162 as the Proteas piled up 408/5, the second highest World Cup total.

The 23-year-old Holder, a lanky seamer, suffered at the hands of de Villiers’ with his last two overs gushing 64 runs. He ended with figures of 10-2-104-1.

The West Indies next play India at Perth March 6 while South Africa take on Ireland March 3 at Canberra.