CENTURION: A whitewash is looking very much possible. Definitely so, after South Africa captain Faf du Plessis pointed out that the opportunities to do that to a No 1 team doesn’t arrive often, and that his team — despite having the series in their pocket, some tired legs notwithstanding — will not take their feet off the pedal.
Speaking after the end of the match to the media, Du Plessis revealed that the chance to do so excited him big time, especially taking into consideration the series defeat that they suffered in India in 2015, in conditions which he deemed extreme.“You don’t always get into a position where you win a series and can give someone a crack, but then, as soon as I ask myself that question, I think, ‘When do you get to beat teams 3-0?’.
“That doesn’t happen a lot, so I’d favour being ruthless. We haven’t had the opportunity to beat India 3-0 for a while. For me, it’s about keeping your foot on the gas. It makes us even hungrier to go out there as a team, so we’re really looking forward to the next Test.”
While his India counterpart Virat Kohli pointed out that even South Africa had not managed to travel to India and compete, Du Plessis referred to his team’s win-loss ratio until their 2015 tour. The batsman said that he as a captain always preferred playing on sporting wickets which had a right balance between both bat and ball.
“Our win-rate away from home is the best in the world, so we have played some really good cricket. The last time we went to India, we didn’t play as well, but I do feel the conditions were touching on extreme. The way to look at that is: even the Indian batting line-up struggled in conditions where their spinners were much better than ours.
“Every Test lasted three days and I think there was only one hundred. In this series there have been times when it has looked tough, but there have been guys scoring runs and taking wickets. So, there is always that battle between bat and ball. If you have that, it is a good wicket. If it is just dominated by seam or spin, then I think the wickets are excessive.”
When asked if this series victory was more to do with avenging their 2015 loss, Du Plessis didn’t hide anything.“It was tough for us. Mentally it took a toll on us, even after that series. So the guys were extremely motivated for this series to put that right. I think you could see that in this Test. In conditions that should suit them more, we adapted really well and we fought every hour. It’s very pleasing, sitting here 2-0 up.”