Sending under-strength side for ODIs was a mistake: Faf du Plessis

South African skipper Faf du Plessis looks like a mighty pleased man. His side won the second Test at Hobart at Australia. The win gave South Africa an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. This was the third consecutive series win for South Africa in Australia in Tests. Faf du Plessis, who was named the skipper in absence of AB de Villiers, spoke at length at how his side achieved the feat.

In the post match conference, du Plessis indicated that the Aussies missed the trick when they sent an under-strength side to South Africa for ODIs. Australian team toured South Africa last month for a 5-match ODI series. They faced a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the hosts. The Australian team rested key players like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. With an inexperienced lineup, they struggled to win any ODI on the tour.

Du Plessis reckons that this move of resting key players backfired. He added that having won the ODI series gave them a big boost coming in to the Tests. Perhaps it was this confidence that rubbed off well in the Test series. He mentioned how his side expected a very strong Australian side to be coming hard at them.

“I definitely think so,” said du Plessis. “We came across here with a lot of confidence, we did expect a really tough challenge because it’s a different team and a full-strength team with two key players in Starc and Hazlewood (returning),“ remarked Faf du Plessis.

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Both Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are quality pacers. The South African skippers respects this fact. He believes it will be the same 5-0 whitewash confidence that the team will take forward in the final Test as well.

“Certainly, not facing them is better than facing them. The confidence from coming over five-nil has helped us a lot and I think it will be the same case going into that last Test match. We’re a confidence team and making sure we do the basics well and if we do that we’ll keep the pressure on the Australian team,” he said.

With such impressive wins on the tour and at home, the body language of the Proteas is looking very impressive. However, the same is not the case with Australia. Du Plessis mentioned that the confidence is hard to fake when the team in underperforming.“We are a team that’s confident at the moment, so we use that and we walk and talk that on the field, our body language is extremely good. But when you’re a team that’s under the pump and under pressure and not playing as well as you would’ve liked, that (confidence) fades away and it’s hard to fake it,“ quoted the South African captain.

Australia started off well in the series. They dominated the first five sessions in the first Test. However, once David Warner was dismissed on 97, the entire team batting collapsed. things went from bad to worse at Hobart when they were bundled out for a paltry 85 in the first innings.

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Faf du Plessis mentioned that they knew if they could get rid of Steve Smith and David Warner, the game would be all theirs. This is because the younger lot in the team would succumb under pressure. “Even though at times they had little bits of it (momentum) we just didn’t give them the opportunity to do it for long periods of time. Guys like David Warner and Steve Smith, if you can put a lot of pressure on them you know that the younger and the more inexperienced players in the team won’t have the same punch as they would have if they back up on their (Warner and Smith’s) performances,“ mentioned du Plessis.

Having been able to control Warner and Smith thus far, they have tasted success. Similarly not giving it away to Starc and Hazlewood has also helped their case a great deal. “We’ve just made sure those guys have been relatively quiet in the series. Even guys like Starc, who is a fantastic bowler. He did amazing things, he bowled really well in that one spell (on day one), but that’s when if you’re on top you get a five-fer, you clean the tail up and you bowl a team out. We were really good at making sure we stopped that,” he concluded.