Our batsmen let us down — Du Plessis
● SA suffered one of their most embarrassing moments of the modern era in crashing to a 2-0 Test series whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka at St George’s Park yesterday.
In winning the second Test by eight wickets, Sri Lanka became the first subcontinent side to claim a Test series on SA soil. They also became only the third nation to win a Test series in SA after England and Australia.
When one considers the tourists limped into the country on the back of being hammered in both Australia and New Zealand then it becomes clear just how disappointing SA were as an opposition.
Sri Lanka started the day on 60 for two, needing a further 137 runs for victory. Overnight batsmen Kusal Mendis (84) and Oshada Fernando (75) both made half centuries to lead their team home without losing another wicket.
It was an astonishing performance considering how many wickets had fallen on the preceding two days.
Both batsmen came out positively and gave the South Africans a batting lesson.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne praised his team, who were given very little chance of competing with SA.
“Winning this series is a great achievement for us. Coming to SA and winning 2-0 in SA is not easy. We were underdogs but we learnt a lot of things on the previous tours and we executed well in these conditions,” Karunaratne said.
“When we started the tour, I said to my boys that whatever happens they have to keep smiling, keep enjoying. If you not enjoying it, you can’t give 100%.
“Our bowlers did a really good job, even the youngsters who were playing. They kept us in this game and when it came to the batting part, Mendis and Fernando did a very good job for us as well.”
SA appeared to have little stomach for the fight and once Mendis and Fernando had reduced their target to under 100 runs, the Proteas appeared to accept the inevitable.
Serious questions will need to be asked of both team management and the players.
Batting coach Dale Benkenstein was refreshingly honest when he said on Friday evening that SA had been complacent.
Captain Faf du Plessis weighed in saying it was the darkest moment of his SA career.
“I’m extremely disappointed. Probably my biggest low since I’ve been playing in the Proteas team is losing to Sri Lanka at home. That’s not nice. Obviously we have to try and make sure we get over this as soon as possible,” Du Plessis said. He admitted the batsmen had let them down.
“It was poor batting throughout the series. This was a very good pitch and I think both teams, throughout the series, have batted poorly. Today was the first time that two guys put a partnership together and made it look easy. Mentally we were just a little bit soft in giving our wickets away.”
Mentally we were soft in giving our wickets away
Faf du Plessis
Proteas captain