Faf lauds Proteas for standing up
FAF du Plessis heaped praise on his side for the way they responded to pressure at various moments throughout the first Test against India in Cape Town.
The game see-sawed with both sides dominating patches of play but the Proteas, who always seemed to have a slight edge, came together when it mattered – in the final innings of the first Test.
After being bowled out for 130 in their second innings, setting India a reasonable score to eclipse they fought back with the perfect exponent to exploit the conditions in Vernon Philander – who took 6/42 to dismiss the tourists for 135 and win the Test by 72 runs.
“Every single time in this Test, we had to stand up in tough periods,” Du Plessis said. “The way we responded was brilliant. Even with them getting to a decent start, we stuck to our guns.”
The South Africa captain also expressed sympathy for Dale Steyn, who has been ruled out of the rest of the series with yet another injury.
“Dale would have been a real handful. We feel sorry for him and wish him a speedy recovery. And thanks to the great crowd over the three days.”
India captain Virat Kohli rued his side’s missed opportunities.
“Well, in hindsight, we lost by 70-odd, if we had taken chances in the first innings, they would have been 220. Losing wickets in bunches (is something) we have to plug in. We were in the game for the three days and it was a wonderful match to be part of.”
Kohli suggested that with tracks that are likely to have even more bounce and pace to come in Pretoria and Johannesburg for the rest of the series, his batsmen needed to find a way to transfer the pressure on to the South African bowlers.
“The mindset matters when you’re travelling away from home on pitches which challenge you. You need to be positive in defence and when you’re leaving also. You need to grab scoring opportunities.
“We need to think about taking the attack to the South African bowlers more.
“They (South Africa) force you to play good cricket in every over that you play against them, which I think is a good credit to their bowling attack. As batters we need to step up.”
“We would have taken that if someone told us 208 would be the target. It was a great effort but we needed someone to get a 75 or 80. Twenty or 30 is not enough. They were a bowler short but they pitched the balls in the right areas and bowled their hearts out. We need to rectify our mistakes.”
The second Test at Centurion begins on Saturday, January 13.
Meanwhile, South Africa have called up fast bowlers Duanne Olivier and uncapped 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi to their squad for the second Test.