South Africa vs Sri Lanka: Faf du Plessis names his biggest weapon in the ODIs

South Africa cantered to victory in the first of the five-match ODI series on Sunday. They restricted the visitors first to a below-par total and then the skipper Faf du Plessis slammed a scintillating ton to help his side gain an early lead. Though all the accolades came for the batsmen, the bowling attack has to be credited for an exceptional performance earlier in the day.

Even Du Plessis was all praise for them and felt it was important to win the toss. Moreover, he had some special words for Imran Tahir and revealed that the leggie has been a weapon for him for a long time now. The fact that the skipper is hailing Tahir was a testament to his brilliant show with the ball. He returned with the figures of 3/26 in his 10 overs.

The wickets of the in-form batsmen in Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva kept Sri Lanka in check in the middle overs where the game tends to drift away most of the times.

He is hard to face for new batters

Faf du Plessis singled out the importance of the wrist spinner and added that it is tough for the middle and lower-middle order batsmen to face him soon after coming out to bat in the middle.

“I thought we played very well. We won an important toss. The wicket was slow and we played well. Imran in the middle overs is handful if he is bowling to five and six, so early strikes are very useful for us. Imran has been my biggest weapon over the years.

“He is so hard to face when he is bowling to new batters and that makes the wickets with the new ball even more important. QDK is a class batsman, he makes flow of batting very easy,” he said in the post-match presentation ceremony. The Proteas will now be hoping to continue their dominance in the limited-overs format after coming second in the Tests. The second match between the two teams will be played on Wednesday.

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