IPL 2019: Opening for CSK Helped Me Grow My Game - Faf Du Plessis
Updated - 12 May 2019, 02:01 PM
Chennai Super Kings opener Faf du Plessis has stated that opening the innings for the franchise has helped him grow his game. Faf usually bats in the middle order for the South African team and when he got a chance to bat at the top of the order for Chennai, it helped him expand his game. In fact, Faf du Plessis is a timer of the ball and the powerplay overs are well suited to his style of play in the T20 game.
On the other hand, Faf du Plessis has had a good season for the Chennai Super Kings. The right-hander has amassed 370 runs in the 11 matches of the season at an average of 37. Faf du Plessis also played a crucial knock of 50 runs off 39 balls in the second qualifier against Delhi Capitals. In fact, the Proteas batsman had also scored a fifty in the first qualifier against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018. Thus, he has shown that he is a big match player.
Faf du Plessis is in fine form.
“Obviously, in my career, I’ve always batted 3 and 4. So the first time I really got an opportunity to open was with Chennai because that’s where the gap is. Suresh [Raina] has batted No.3 since he was 18 for Chennai, and he’s going to bat there for, I suppose, a few more years. Even [MS] Dhoni sometimes bats at 4 or 5,” the International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Du Plessis, as saying.
“So the opportunity for me was to open the batting, especially after [Michael] Hussey left. South Africa team, I bat [at] three, it’s probably my best role. It was good for me to just grow my game, just batting different circumstances,” he added.
Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis believes that team batting unit is yet not up to the mark. du Plessis added that the team hasn’t played a lot on the flat tracks. Hence, it is always difficult for their batters to hit the ground running.
The nature of our whole batting line-up is we haven’t been in our best form, because we haven’t been playing on a flat wicket all the time. So, naturally, you need a few more balls to hit the ball middle of the bat. Once we get through that, we generally score quicker,” he said.
“We saw that innings where Watson got 96 — once he gets through the Powerplay, he plays really well. So that’s a real strength of ours just to get through that, and it just frees up all the players,” Du Plessis added.
Faf du Plessis will like to carry the same form going in the World Cup and in the final of the IPL. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians will take on each other in the final of the tournament at Hyderabad on 12th May.
