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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPJune 23, 2019Faf du PlessisLondon, England, UK Pakistan - 308/7 (50), South Africa - 259/9 (50) Q. You've played a lot of games for South Africa, have you ever seen a worse performance than today? FAF DU PLESSIS: Probably harsh to say the worst performance ever, but frustrating. You know, I feel, keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Probably started off with the bowling. Our bowling has been the one thing that's been working this tournament, and today, a well below par performance, probably bar Immy, was exceptional once again. But the rest of the guys, probably, you know, five out of ten performance with the bowl, 30 runs too many and the same thing with the bat once again. You know, guys, we're starting our innings losing wickets again and then we build something nicely, get a partnership going and then wicket and then bowl and then wicket. So I feel like I'm saying the same things over and over again, and that's really, really frustrating. But yeah, for me at the moment, it's a confidence thing. The guys are -- they are playing with low confidence; and therefore, making more mistakes. Q. Are you disappointed with the performance of Lungi and Rabada, only took three wickets today, but especially with the new ball? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I mean, the two of them has been -- the last year they have been brilliant for us, and they have been striking. Kagi has been bowling quick right through the season. I do feel Lungi's fitness is perhaps the thing that is his biggest challenge. He hasn't played a lot of cricket. His pace is probably a little bit down from where he used to be, so that's taking the effectiveness of him away. I mean, he's had his control, but he's coming -- hasn't played a lot of games in this World Cup, and I think his fitness is probably one big challenge that he would need to step up. And then Kagi, Kagi is trying. But I suppose same thing with Kagi is that a lot of the guys are struggling with at the moment is they haven't started the tournament well; and therefore, your confidence has taken a bit of a hit, and it just rolls on. It's such a snowball effect that your performance, you open your eyes, and you're doing the same thing again. So that will be something that Kagi will need to -- you know, he's a great bowler. He will be able to fix that. His career has been one that's been probably just going up and up and up and up and up every time he's played for us. So this is probably his first stumbling block as a great fast bowler. So for him now, it will be to how he responds, how he learns in this period and how he makes sure he gets better. Because he has been great for us, but now he needs to take stock of where his bowling is and then try and get better as a bowler. Q. You speak about confidence, and guys being low on confidence now. How do you go about fixing something like that? What did you try before this game earlier in the tournament and what hasn't worked? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, it's a difficult one. The real honest answer is it chips away at you. You know, trying very, very hard, and then coming and playing another game and the same thing happens against and you go back and you try and train hard again and you make the same mistake again. It does; it chips away at your confidence. It chips away at your ego. It chips away at you as a player. As much as I can say or the coach can say, the responsibility lies with every player to try and make sure that he comes to the park and give everything, and if confidence is an issue, you need to sort it out yourself. Everyone has played the game of cricket long enough to understand that you do go through highs and lows. The frustrating thing for us at the moment is we have got more people going through lows than highs right now, and therefore, the team confidence is low. You know, from a batting point of view, there's a lot of guys low on runs. You need at least three out of your five guys firing in a tournament like this to be successful, and at the moment, that's not happening. And as I said, from a bowling point of view, as well, we've been lucky enough that our bowling unit has been strong for a long period of time, and perhaps carried some of the batting units that we've had, but now the fact that on a day like today when they don't bowl well, then it makes it really tough for us to go and chase it down. Q. What impact did Dale's leaving have? Because when he gets a wicket, he gets so pumped up that he gets the rest of the bowling unit going. FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, that's what Dale does and Kagi to a degree, as well. But I feel like I'm saying the same thing, but it's a confidence thing. You know, when Dale is bowling well and he's pumped up, it's because he's at the top of his game. Kagi at the moment is feeling like he needs to do something, but it's not happening for him; and therefore, you're not seeing that same intensity when he bowls -- or not bowls; or when he celebrates a wicket or when he's going through after the over bat to his mark. Obviously Dale is a special bowler, and the fact that he's injured, we can't use that as an excuse. There's enough good bowlers in our team to still be better than what we did today. There was a lot of bad bowls balled on our wicket that if you just bowled really good lines and lengths, it was tough for the batters to score. Q. Going for quite a few matches left for you in the tournament, so what will be South Africa's approach in the remainder of the tournament, and as a captain, how will you motivate the team? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, it's tough. That's where it's lying at the moment. I've tried certainly my best to try and make sure that we can get stronger, trying to get better, and I thought before today, even though we are losing, I did feel that there was an upwards curve in the cricket that we were playing. You know, we started doing more things right since the Afghanistan game. New Zealand game, we played a good game of cricket. One or two things perhaps you could have done a little bit better. But today, then taking a step back, two steps forwards, one step back, that's not a great team. For me, we are sitting at that mediocre team at the moment because we are making the same mistakes all the time. Yeah, I'll go back and do exactly the same as we did last week. You know, trying to make sure that -- you have to keep trying. Unfortunately you can't go away, because otherwise, there is naturally in your team -- you'll have guys when they get low on confidence they will get quiet and they will go away into the backgrounds a little bit, but for me as a captain, that's not something I can do. Q. Is this turning out to be the lowest point of your career as national captain? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yes, definitely. I'm a very proud player and captain, and playing for South Africa means a lot for me, and the fact that the results we're dishing out at the moment -- you know, it's really, really tough, and borderline -- today, it's becoming where it's a little bit embarrassing. We're trying but it's just not good enough. Obviously I'm human, as well, so it will keep chipping at me, as way -- at me as well -- sorry about that. But I don't have an opportunity to go anywhere. Like I said, it's important that the coach, myself, the senior players, are the guys that needs to front up to this challenge. That's when your players need you the most. So right now, I need to be there for the other players, as well. Q. This is a bitter moment for the South African cricket because South Africa was always in the first four or five teams in all international tournaments. We cannot understand when the players play league cricket, they play vital role and they are all playing very good. But when they play for the South African team, then they are not showing their actual performance. What is the reason behind? FAF DU PLESSIS: Well, I think through the season, they do that. We've had some great performances in the season, but like I said what's happening at the moment is we started the tournament probably average, poorly, and the fact, the spinoff of that has been that the guys have -- the knock-on effect of that is the guys are now, there's a lot of pressure on this team to do well. The fact that every game you play, there's more pressure on you now because there's a lot of people, rightly and fairly criticising this team, because they are not playing the cricket that we should. And therefore, it makes it even more, more pressure on the players, and the fact that a lot of the group is low on confidence means that we aren't producing the results that we need. So I don't think it's necessarily a case of people playing in different leagues and doing well. I think it's just a case that just the nature of this tournament, specifically. You need to start well. You need your players on form. You need a few guys on a purple patch, and if you do that have, then hopefully from there you start playing some good cricket. If you look at all the other teams that's doing well, they have got guys in their team that's consistently doing that, and we haven't had -- apart from Immy, we haven't had a purple patch guy on our team that just comes in every game and dishes out good performances. As a whole, as a team, yeah, we've got a lot of guys very low on confidence at the moment. Q. I just wanted to go back to Kagi for a second. Are you happy with the way he's been managed from a workload perspective over the last three, four years? He's obviously bowled a hell of a lot of balls over the last four years. Are you happy that he was in optimum condition when he came into this tournament? FAF DU PLESSIS: I don't think we'll ever have a perfect answer for that because he's probably biting on too much. But we did try and get him not to go to the IPL; to try and stay and get fresh. That wasn't the case of -- and then when he went there, we were like, let's try and get him back halfway through the IPL because it's important, not just for him, but a few other players. I mean, I spoke about it before the IPL even started, that it's important that we try and find space to rest our three-format players, because they play all the formats all the time, and then IPL. So I don't think it's necessarily just the IPL, but it was important for a few guys to rest; and the fact that they didn't meant that they -- you know, they came into the tournament not fresh. That's not an excuse; that's just a fact. And Kagi is -- you can see that his pace is probably a little bit down from where he normally is. But that challenge we are going to have as a team all the time. You can't unfortunately go back with the national side and say to Kagi: Listen, you're going to rest for the next two series'. He's such a big player for the team; it's a difficult thing to do. You know, you need guys that can -- you need three or four or five bowlers in the wings waiting, so you can have a bit of a rotation system. I mean, that was the plan with Anrich in the backup and pipeline, and he got injured, as well. So there for all our pace is gone and there's so much responsibility on Kagi to carry that load of being the lone fast bowler. Q. You mentioned the batsmen being low on confidence and also the bowlers not performing up to expectations. In the last couple of years back home, you guys have been playing on pitches that have really assisted the bowlers a lot and have been very tough for guys to bat on. Do you feel maybe that's played a role here and that the bowlers have arrived and maybe you've had it too easy back home and maybe the batsmen have had their confidence irreparably damaged by how tough it's been back at home? FAF DU PLESSIS: I think if this was a test championship, I would have said yes to that. But the fact that we have been playing on good wickets and one-day cricket at home doesn't change that. The one-day wickets that I was really good; the guys at home play on good pitches. They score runs back at home. Probably bar one or two players who carried a bit of low form into the tournament, I think if you look at Quinton, myself, Rassie over the last two years, there's been consistency with us with our one-day game and we are scoring big runs. But the fact that you look at some of the other guys, it's probably a little bit of experience and probably a little bit of low on form. But as I said, one-day wickets, wherever you play in the world, are pretty similar. Sometimes there's a little bit of the new ball, but then it generally gets good. Yeah, I don't think so. Q. You've received praise in the way that you've captained the side, and obviously the way you've gone about your business, are you worried that will World Cup perhaps like taints your legacy and the legacy of Hashim and JP and David and some senior players? Is that something that you worry about at all? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I'd be lying if I say no. I think, as I said, as a player, I'm very proud. But I've always said that my most enjoyment that I get from the game playing for South Africa is captaining the side. The fact that we are really under performing, as I said, chips away at me, as well. It's really important for me. I love captaining this team, and the fact that we are playing way, way below our potential, is not something, as I said, it's not something that sits with me well. There's too much pride for me, and that's why -- I mean, I'm trying as much as I can, but unfortunately not everything is in my hands. You know, if I could, I would get my wand out and get some runs on the table for our batters, but I can't, unfortunately. So it is a challenge, and my character is one that will try and fix as many problems as I can and try and control the areas that I can, but unfortunately, I can't control everything. So yeah, I have to make sure that I put my head on my pillow at night knowing I've done everything in the buildup to that match and then just trust the players to perform. Q. Is there anything in your captaincy you think you could have done differently looking back? FAF DU PLESSIS: No. As I said for me, the biggest thing is making sure that I could put my head on my pillow at night knowing I've done everything in the buildup to that week, and you know, as far as preparation, we've done as much as we can. The one area where if I could have it definitely was having more players to rest before the tournament, but that's something that's not in my hands. Yeah, I can't do anything about that. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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