High praise for superb SA

Hobart – Proteas captain Faf du Plessis (below) has praised the way his team withstood the pressure of a must-win match to pull off a 2-1 series win against Australia in Hobart on Sunday.

The Proteas put in their most complete performance of the series, and finally clicked with both bat and ball for their first series win in Australia since 2008/2009.

The win completes a successful ODI year for the squad, who have won three out of four series. The Proteas will next face Australia in their last group match of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in Manchester on July 6.

“It is really good to see us putting it together in a big game, we had to win the series,” a delighted Du Plessis said. “We had a big challenge for ourselves to try and put in our best performance, I am so pleased we could that.

“I thought the way we set up the game was really good, the tempo of our innings was great,” Du Plessis said of the record-breaking partnership with David Miller. “It was tough in the beginning losing three early wickets, they were bowling really well.

“We absorbed the good bowling and waited for an opportunity to put the pressure back on. That started happening in the 35th over. We had some fun, I don’t hit the ball as far as David so I had to run a few more twos.”

Miller scored the fastest century (95 balls) by a South African against Australia, belting four sixes – the furthest going 100m – and 13 fours on his way to his career-best score.

Du Plessis had the best seat in the house watching from the other end, and was full of praise for the smart manner in which Miller constructed his innings.

“What I like about him is that he has different paces to his game,” he said of Miller, who was also named Man-of-the-Series for his tally of 192 runs.

The Proteas travelled to Brisbane yesterday ahead of the oneoff T20 International on Saturday.