SA vs IND 2018: Being Unfit Motivated Me to Come Back Stronger and Work Harder Behind the Scenes - Vernon Philander

Player of the Match in the opening Test between India and South Africa Vernon Philander said the suggestions of him being unfit motivated him to perform better and work harder behind the scenes.

Philander produced a magical spell on the 4^th day afternoon which eventually handed the Proteas a comfortable victory in the end by 72 runs.

Skipper Faf du Plessis had questioned Philander’s overall fitness last year, and the same opinion was voiced by former South African skipper Graeme Smith. The medium pacer picked up an injury during the 1^st Test against England at Lord’s and then eventually missed the final Test with a back strain at Old Trafford.

Following the England series, du Plessis pushed Philander to work on his fitness for assignments in 2018 especially against India and Australia, and on Monday he produced his best Test figures of 6/42 to bowl the Proteas to a victory by 72 runs. Following the opening Test, du Plessis was simply overjoyed with his performance and praised him for the hunger he showed especially when the Proteas needed somebody to stand up and be counted.

“I like people to be constructive and open and honest with us as players,” Philander said of the criticism he received last year.

“There are two ways of facing it: You can take it personally and fade away, or you can take it on board and actually make a play and come back stronger. I took it a bit personally up front, but we’re all obviously human at the end of the day. I put it aside as quickly as possible and tried to do the work behind the scenes to come back strong.”

With Dale Steyn injured for the 2^nd innings, Philander needed to step up especially after a terrific bowling performance by the visitors which skittled the hosts out for a paltry 130 runs in the 2^nd innings. He took the last three wickets in just four deliveries but not before Ravichandran Ashwin, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave them some nervous moments and reached closer to the title.

After the lunch interval, it was a moment of magic from Quinton de Kock which again put the Proteas on the top. Ashwin attempted a square cut of a relatively short of a length delivery but ended up thick edging it straight to de Kock.

“You have to be open to those suggestions, and I’ll give this one to Faf,” Philander said of the decision to bring De Kock up to the stumps. “Ashwin at the time was batting far out of his crease, and the wicket was a touch on the slow side. I felt that pushing him back would give all three dismissals back in play.

“You just have to remain calm. We had it in our arsenal to get those last three wickets. The team with the calm head comes out on top,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the 2^nd Test of the series will commence from Saturday at the Supersport Park in Centurion.

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