Faf du Plessis, South Africa, England
Photo Credit: Getty Images.

It is not easy to be in the shoes of South African skipper Faf du Plessis right now. The Proteas are almost knocked out of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019. The old demons came back to haunt the team as they could not grab their chances in the field. The Proteas have won a solitary match out of the six they have played. One match has ended in no result and the semifinals doors are all but shut.

However, a heartbroken Faf du Plessis stated that his team gave their all they had in the field. And as a captain, this is all he could ask for. It is never easy to embrace the disappointment and it has sadly become a norm with South African cricket at the World Cup stage. The Proteas have savoured disappointment and this World Cup has been nothing new.

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“You know, it’s tough now. Like you can feel in the dressing room, the guys are hurting. I’m feeling five years older. My body is really sore after that,” he said. ” So we left everything out there, and that’s all I can ask for as a captain, that the guys fought. They showed that.”

On the other hand, there was a turning point when Faf du Plessis didn’t go for the review. Kane Williamson had edged the ball but Quinton de Kock did not hear the nick and thus didn’t appeal. Williamson then went on to score a gutsy century to help his team get over the line. The South African skipper said he wasn’t aware of the nick.

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“We weren’t aware of it. I think I was at long on at the time, and Quinny is the closest to the action. He’s always my go-to man,” du Plessis said when asked about the reprieve. “I just thought it was a plain miss. I just heard about it now at the post-match that he said he had a nick on it. But even Kane said he didn’t know he had to fine tune it. He would have referred it. But that’s not where the game was won and lost.”

South Africa’s batting could not come up with a complete performance in the tournament. They could only add 241 runs against New Zealand. Furthermore, their performance with the bat hasn’t been impressive. du Plessis added that there is still a lot of inexperience in the batting line-up and the batters are learning with experience.

Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis. Credit: Getty Images

“It’s just pure numbers on the board. Batters getting the runs that they should. If you look at the opposition, there’s been big runs scored by batting lineups, you know. We’ve got a pretty youngish batting lineup if you take Rassie [van der Dussen], Aiden [Markram], guys like that, even Andile to a degree. He’s going really good at his cricket, but he’s young in terms of putting innings together”.

South Africa will play their seventh match of the World Cup against Pakistan on 23rd June at Lord’s, London.

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