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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

May 30, 2019

Faf du Plessis

Kennington, London, England, UK

Q. You spoke on the week about the mental state in taking this one on the chin, win or lose and now you have to obviously implement that. Just the mind-set at the moment and how you go through.
FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, this is where it's important for us to make sure that you look at the World Cup for what it is. You know, you're going to play games. You're going to come up against quality opposition. Today England was better than us all three facets of the game. They show why they are such a good cricket team, and now we have to look at the league. It's a league competition.

As disappointed as we are with our performances today, you have to make sure you learn from it quickly and put every single dart to bed because there is a next game and you have to make sure you play good cricket again.

Q. Were you disappointed at the way the batsman got out and what do you think made that happen, and how can you guys fix the batting?
FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I think the flow of innings, unfortunately, started with Hashim coming off the field. When you are chasing a big score like 310 what you need is a good start. You need to make sure that you settle the bats in the dressing room with a good partnership, whether it's zero down or one down, but a good start is really important and obviously with him coming off, and then a few of us later, Aiden got out and then one or two of us later, I got out. When you go 3-down on a big score like that, you're making it really tough for our batting unit to perform. And then the score just looks big. It looks too far. It looks too difficult to get there.

The pitch was good enough for us to have a good start. Obviously Archer bowled really well with the new ball, as I said before, this game. A lot of the guys hasn't played against him. So it will take time for international batters to get used to his action.

As I said, a little bit nippier when he hits the crease and that's why he is such an X-Factor bowler. He broke through our opening three there, and that pretty much was always going to be a tough ask from their.

Quin batted really well. Rassie once again showed good composure. So yeah, it's just for me now, it's about making sure the dressing room, look at the areas that we got it wrong, and just move on. That's it.

Q. Can you describe the thought process behind opening the bowling with Imran Tahir, and how much of it was a surprise element that he got the wicket in the first over?
FAF DU PLESSIS: Not a surprise. It was a plan. It was something that we thought about a year ago already. I said when we played against England, there's a feeling that, you know, I want to go with Immy because it is something different.

You know, I suppose it got a little bit tested when you win the toss and you're bowling first and it's normally The Oval where you want to bowl two-seamers, but still with that, just sticking to what I feel is the best opportunity to get a wicket, and that's to everyone.

So to those two at the top, yeah, my gut was just saying that Imran has a big chance of getting a wicket; and to the buildup to this game, practising with a new bowl for the last two weeks, it's something that he's not really done before, but he knew that he was going to take that first over today.

Q. Archer's wickets, and even Hash hit on the head, which is he effectively a wicket in it itself, is that what express pace does, that it hurry things and make you do things that you don't necessarily want to do?
EOIN MORGAN: Not necessarily. I think it's just what I said, his action. You know, you could see now towards the END that even with Rassie, bowls, slower bowl, slower bowl, 80 percent bowl, 80 percent bowl and then a quick bouncer. So there's obviously some thinking behind it.

He does, when he bowls that short one, it is a bit quicker than his other bowls, and the guys will get to understand that action better.

So when we get an opportunity to play against England again, we'll know his short ball is his wicket ball. He's not necessarily a guy that will swing the ball as much as other bowls, but his short ball will be his wicket-taking ball.

Q. The first half of the game seemed like a whole lot of planning coming together, not just in one, but also playing Dwaine and Andile and lots of slower balls and that sort of thing. How frustrating is it that the first half of the game seemed to go all according to plan and then sort of fell apart afterwards?
FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I thought after the first half, that we did a good job with the bowl. You know, as I said before this game, England more so than any other team in this World Cup, bat longer than anyone else. So if you can stop them with the long batting lineup you have, then you're doing a great job with the bowl.

For them to score as little runs as they did the last 15 overs and us picking up as many wickets as we did, was a great achievement by our both units. But yeah, as I said, 310 is still a big score, so what you need to do you is need to start well, and we didn't have that luxury today.

Q. How do you apprise Ben's performance today? Coming up against a guy like that, top scorer, run-outs, that catch, as well, how could you compete with that?
FAF DU PLESSIS: He's a good cricketer, 3-1 cricketer, and that's why I said why England is such a good team. You know, they have a lot of all-rounders that play a part, Mo and Ali, same thing. On other days, he does it with a batter's ball and does it on the field. Chris Woakes, good bowler, he comes in at the end. He can score you runs. It goes on: Rashid, Plunkett. That's England team's strength; that the guys are so long, and yeah, that's why they are playing probably the most consistent one-day cricket.

Q. The catch?
FAF DU PLESSIS: The catch, yeah, brilliant. That's as good as it gets. I also enjoy those round-hand, one-hand catches. I appreciate the skill that goes into that.

But I know with him, been playing with him on previous teams before. He practices his fielding hard. He's a guy that he does train those catches, so there's no fluke when it comes to taking a catch like that with him.

Q. You said 310 is a big score. Was anything more you could have done?
FAF DU PLESSIS: I'll go back now and I'll think what could I do better, what could I do from the pitch. But as I said, their batting lineup is long. So Stokes coming in at five or six, whatever, to get 90 runs the way that he did. I didn't feel that we made a lot of mistakes with the ball.

I thought it was a good battle between good bowlers and a very, very strong batting lineup, and it was, you know, probably ten, 15 runs more, if you were really harsh on ourselves, a few soft deliveries. But apart from that, 3-under on a good wicket like that, yeah, I would have taken that.

Q. When you won the toss, did you have an idea in your mind of what target you would have like to have been chasing? How close to 312 was that?
FAF DU PLESSIS: I was hoping 180 (Laughter) but that's probably the glass-half-full side of me.

Yeah, when they got going and they batted really well, it looked like they were going close to 350 and obviously the scores, especially from them the last while, has been 350, has been almost their par. So yeah, in my head, I was aiming at anything between 320 and 300 would have been a great effort from us.

To do that, yeah, I think the bowlers did a good job today.

Q. You took two very good catches in the outfield. How difficult is it to lead the team in today's era, most of the time when you are in the outfield? Kohli gets support from Tony. How do you manage?
FAF DU PLESSIS: The last year or so, I've been in the ring -- I love talking to the bowlers -- because I had a dodgy shoulder; that's better now.

The competitive fielder inside me wants to go where the ball goes, you know, because I feel like your best fielders needs to be where the ball goes.

So luckily for us today, we bowled quite a bit of spin, so we had enough time for me to go to the boundary and then still go up to the bowler and talk about plans and tactics.

But yeah, we haven't got -- we haven't got a lot of quick fielders around the park, so that's why I feel it's necessary for me to go with Markham, who is also a good fielder. We have David Miller who is a good fielder; he didn't play. There's a few slow-ish guys on the field so, it makes the quicker guys' job on the team more important.

Q. How impressed were you with Lungi and Ngidi's character, his first World Cup game, wasn't going to well for him, but then I think he was 3-for-21 and 4-overs at the death?
FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, Lungi, he's got a beautiful action. Today, just off with the start. He's normally a guy that is very, very balanced in his -- in the way that he bowls. He doesn't offer a lot of bad balls.

Today, there was a few up front, but that's okay. That's going to happen. And then the way he came back was beautiful. You know, to guess Jos Buttler out, he's probably one of the best strikers in the world.

So get him out with good thinking, good tactics, and coming back, as you're saying, 3-for-21 is very good for us, because Lungi, Kagi, those guys are going to play a role when it comes to close games at the death as the tournament moves on. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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