Cricket South Africa lauded thenational squad on what it called "a magnificent rearguard action and, inparticular, Faf du Plessis for his phenomenal performance on debut" toearn a draw in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide.
Du Plessis became the first South African toscore a century and a half-century on his debut. His aggregate of 188 was thesecond best for the Proteas after Jacques Rudolph who made 222 from one inningsagainst Bangladesh in 2003.
"Faf played with great skill,determination and pride, and the hallmark was the calmness he displayed, particularlyin guiding the tail-enders through an extremely difficult last hour,"commented CSA Acting CEO Jacques Faul.
These are all the characteristics that havemade our Test side such a world-class unit over the past few years anddemonstrated just how hard they are to beat.
"Faf's performance in this match wasworld-class by any standards but to do it on debut in an away Test againstAustralia was absolutely phenomenal. There is a great skill involved in playingmatch-winning innings but playing match-saving innings can often be even moredifficult," he added.
Du Plessis' innings lasted 16 minutes short ofeight hours and enabled the Proteas to bat out the last day. The match alsoproduced yet another statistical landmark for Jacques Kallis who has now scored50 or more runs in a Test innings on 100 occasions.
"Faf was by no means a one-man band insaving this match and we congratulate everybody for the way they knuckled downto complete a job well done.
"This has been an engrossing series ofTest cricket to date which underlines the greatness of the five-day format, andall South Africans will be looking forward to another keen encounter at Perthfrom Friday."