SA vs IND 2018: Faf du Plessis Praises Indian Bowlers, Critical of His Own Batters for Not Putting Up Partnerships

It was a brilliant performance by Team in the opening ODI against South Africa, as they romped home by six wickets and with 27 deliveries to spare to take a 1-0 lead in the six-match series.

While Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis hailed the Indian bowlers for their exceptional display of bowling, he was critical of his batsman who put up a dismal show and failed to forge together partnerships which are the basic need in an ODI game. The defeat also ended South Africa’s 17 wins unbeaten streak at home. He further added South Africa was around 60 runs shorts of what they should have been on a Kingsmead surface which quickened up as the game progressed.

“We didn’t bat well. As a batting unit, for the second top score to be 30 or 40 shows that there weren’t partnerships. The most basic thing about ODI cricket is two guys getting together and putting some sort of partnership together,” Du Plessis said.

He was the lone bright spot in the match, as he smashed a sensational 120 of just 112 deliveries which included 11 fours and a couple of sixes. Most batsmen struggled at the other end, as the Indian wrist spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal made life difficult for the Proteas batters.

“I thought the Indian spinners bowled well but still we should have been better today against them,” Du Plessis said.

He further stated it was up to the batsmen to give their bowlers a decent total to defend which didn’t happen.

“I certainly think we needed 300. 260 odd wasn’t enough on that deck. The last two games we played here, we got more runs and won. We chased 370 here against Australia.

“So, I think it’s unfair to say to the bowlers that they were poor. I thought surely we didn’t have runs. If we had got 60-70 more, it would have been easier for our bowlers,” he said.

Kuldeep and Chahal shared five wickets between them, as South Africa could only muster 269/8 in their allotted 50 overs to take the lead in the six-match series. Du Plessis concluded by saying the way Kuldeep and Chahal bowled; it shows ODI cricket was slowly tilting in favour of the wrist spinners.

“It shows that in white-ball cricket the game is moving towards wrist-spinners because they have the ability to pick up wickets and that’s what they (Kuldeep and Chahal) did today,” Du Plessis signed off.

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