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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPJune 28, 2019Faf du PlessisChester-le-Street, County Durham, England, UK South Africa - 206-1, Sri Lanka - 203 Q. Faf, not to sound negative, but why didn't you guys play this the whole tournament? FAF DU PLESSIS: Well, I think chasing 200 is obviously a little bit easier than chasing 350, by starting your innings off, it is a completely different game, you can bat towards your own tempo. Dwaine bowled well today. The bowlers after the first six overs, the bowlers did a really good job and they put their skills together. I can't give you the answer why it hasn't happened before. Just today was -- you know, Dwaine didn't play the previous games, so maybe in English conditions he worked really well today and our plan was especially on this wicket, the slower the bowler the harder it is to face, so it worked out perfectly that he was the guy that was going to be successful. And then with the bat, I have been saying it a lot, the guys have been batting well but only for short periods. And the basics of batting once again. If you get in, someone to bat through the innings, it then becomes easier. So, it's just probably doing the basics better today than we've done in the tournament. Q. Faf, as a player, how do you see that, at a time when you are striking, both you and Hashim? Does it somewhere, down the line, do you feel that it would have been good had this come earlier in the tournament? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yes. I personally felt I batted really well throughout the tournament. I have been getting starts, been feeling good. I just haven't been able to convert it into big scores. But I suppose there's always that fine balance when you are chasing big scores that you have to go through times of risks and times of just playing the pace of the innings. Today, the pace of the innings was dictated by the batters. When you are chasing a much higher score, the risk of your game goes up quite a bit and, therefore, I've made quite a bit of mistakes trying to take on the game, trying to get to the run rate we've needed. For me, it's the basics of getting a partnership together. Once you have got that partnership, everything becomes so much easier and batting becomes in your own terms out there and we haven't had enough of that, you know. Hash has also got one or two starts, but hasn't been consistent enough at all to put us into good positions from a start of the innings point of view. Q. Faf, obviously the win and the way you guys played will put a smile on your face. You seemed to enjoy yourselves. Imran came and gave you a cuddle on the field. There seemed to be a couple of jokes going about. Chris was doing some push-ups. What is the vibe in the camp like leading up to this game, what's it been like? FAF DU PLESSIS: It's the first time I have seen Morris do push-ups (laughter). It's been good throughout the tournament. I find that as tough as it's been behind-the-scenes, there has still been a team behind, there's been teamship behind the performances. So, that was never the issue. There was never anything behind-the-scenes that wasn't working. It was purely a case of us not being good enough to beat teams and us letting ourselves down on some other occasions and we have been outplayed one or two times, but we have tried to enjoy it. But in saying that, it's not, it's difficult to enjoy it all the time when you are not getting the performances that you want, you know. So then we try and get away from the game to make sure that there is still a bit of fun away from the game, so it was really good to see that we could enjoy ourselves on the field today as well. Q. Faf, the way Hashim batted today, you know, the last three or four years we haven't seen him at his best. Now with this World Cup, where do you see him going from here? Because he's such a key element as we saw today, when he gets going, but with him losing his touch over the years, how do you see his career panning out from here? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I know, it's probably stating the obvious, but our dependence on how well and how badly we have done would have been a case of how well our top players scored runs, senior players doing well, and Hash played brilliantly today. If there was one or two more innings like today we would have sit in a different position. Similar with myself. One or two more scores where I have batted through. Same with Quinny. Those are probably three of our most senior players. The other guys are still young in their careers. Rassie has shown signs for us this year and Aiden is just starting off. But the big scores have been highly-dependent on those top three the last two years and if that happens, we do well as a team. Q. I think the question about Hashim is, do you think he will continue from here, or have you got any signs of what his plans are? FAF DU PLESSIS: He said he wants to keep going, so, you know, I think you leave it to a great player to make that decision himself, that is how I see... I see certainly great players almost planning their exit so, you know, if Hash is doing well and he still wants to play, he will keep playing. Obviously, performances would be important for him to make sure that as any of us in the team that if you are not consistently putting the runs on the board and someone else is pushing you out the team, then you are competing with someone else. So yeah, it's probably still too early to tell. There will be a sitting down I'm sure after this World Cup where whoever decides what's the way forward, you know, and that discussion will happen then. Q. A little bit off cricket for a sec. The bees in the end of the Sri Lankan innings, how weird was that? Have you ever been stopped by bees before? FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I remember the last time, it was at Johannesburg against Sri Lanka, the same thing happened. It is very funny. Looks like someone's just had a machine-gun through all the players on the field and everyone is down on the ground (smiling). Yeah, you are not brave enough when there is a bee, a swarm of bees flying. I think I'm brave, but not that brave (smiling). Q. Faf, I think it is fair to say that today was the first time that you put together a good bowling performance and a batting performance in the same game. FAF DU PLESSIS: Yeah. Q. Can you say at this point if that is because of the pressure of reaching the semis is off, or did you just happen to get it right? FAF DU PLESSIS: I can't say. I mean, it looks, if you look at the facts, it looks like that. But it's just, we just put it together today. I thought -- I mean, you mention it. Our bowling was working... The last two games there were signs of good bowling and signs of poor bowling. We have chased almost 300 every game. I think 80 percent of the games have been high-scoring games and that is a different beast in a World Cup when you are chasing a big score. But as I said today, it was a smaller score so I think even if we were still in it chasing 200, it is a far easier task than it is chasing a big score because you are facing against scoreboard pressure, you know, you are looking up, the rate is at nines or tens, and you know you've got to make a play, so I think today was just -- whether this was before, today would have been the same result. We bowled really well. We restricted them to a score and chased it down clinically. So there is learning from both bat and ball that we haven't been good enough with bat or ball at different stages through the tournament. Q. Faf, in the greater scheme of the World Cup, is this victory a hollow one, or is it one that is a relief after everything that's gone before? FAF DU PLESSIS: It still feels hollow. It's great winning, obviously, but it does -- it is very, very bittersweet because you know that we've let a lot of people down and that was never the plan. So we will enjoy in the changing room. We will get together and we will enjoy the performance. But I think when you go back, there will still be that hollow feeling of stuff that could have been in this tournament. But the crazy thing about this World Cup, it's been a remarkable tournament where different teams on their day can beat anyone and it shows you that if you are not on top of your game, in international cricket, the margins are so small and we will look back now and look back at this tournament as being very disappointing, but there's been a lot of games where the margins were so small. You know, New Zealand, I remember India when we were bowling well, their second innings, when KG was so unlucky, the margins are so small, and you get something going and that is the end of the game and you look back and it looks like you have been completely outplayed. But we haven't been great this tournament, but we certainly haven't been that far off the ball. Q. Faf, you had a challenging start to the tournament with India and England in your first three games, Sri Lanka you have done well against over the past year, a sort of a niggling feeling that if matches had been different, if sequences had been different, things might have panned out a little bit differently for your batting order? FAF DU PLESSIS: No, definitely. I think it is crucial, especially for a team like us in tournaments like these, that you need to start well. If you start well, your confidence in your team will grow and then from there, anything is possible. But to start the way we did, I mean you come here already with an expectation of needing to do well and then you go zero from three and that expectation becomes a weight on your shoulders. That is a heavy burden to carry. But we... That's the sport we play. We accept that and we acknowledge that that we put ourselves in that position. I think it's the way you start, I think you get confidence from that, and that first week was a really tough week for us. Q. Faf, it's becoming a really interesting competition now with the permutations for other teams. How frustrating has it been to watch it from the sidelines now you are out of contention? And how long does this final week become knowing that Australia is only next Saturday? FAF DU PLESSIS: No, I mean, we will make sure that we enjoy the time that we have. We said to the guys this morning that there were two games left with this group of players playing together. There will be a few players signing off after this and we've got to make sure we put in our best performances for the guys who have served the game so well over the years, you know. So I think the guys will still be very motivated to do that. I think you could see today that we still came here with a massive intention of trying to fight as hard as we can, even though we are out of the competition. Yeah, it's going to be for the other teams, it's going to be exciting to watch, especially now seeing what England is going to do in their last two games. That will be exciting to see. But certainly I feel that the better teams are in the positions they are for a reason. Us, West Indies, Sri Lanka, have been the most inconsistent teams, I suppose, and you look at Australia, New Zealand have been very consistent in their performances so they deserve... This tournament is a lot tougher than it used to be. The quarterfinals -- I remember the previous World Cup, I don't think we played great cricket to get to the quarterfinals but we got to the final. So you can almost afford a few slip-ups in a tournament like that, but with this just semifinals tiers, you have to be on top of your game or you won't make it. Q. A lot of the time before the tournament you spoke about guys not needing to be superheroes... The bowling of Dwaine Pretorius today, does that epitomise the approach you were looking for? Can you talk to us about the reasons why Dwaine hasn't played since the England game in terms of conditions and that? FAF DU PLESSIS: I will answer the second part first. As I said on a lot of our occasions, Dwaine has been our No. 7 starting the tournament, but as soon as Dale went down, our bowling attack needed something more, it needed some more oomph, some x-factor, and that is why we went to Morris, and I thought he's had a really good competition. So there was never really any other options really to look at. It was always a case of Morris versus Pretorius and because he had a bit more pace, and we had a No. 7 and No. 8, you are looking for a bowling all-rounder. And Morris, as I said, he did well. So, after the previous game I just felt that Lungi's fitness, as I said after the post-match, I just feel like he was a bit underpace-wise where he needs to be and, therefore, for this game, and that conditions that we are playing at, that we were not necessarily looking at pace on this wicket, we were looking for someone that was accurate. That is what we were looking for from all our bowlers in all conditions. The more accurate you can be the more effective you are. And probably Morris and Tahir and Andile, most of the stages have been the guys that have been really consistent in landing the ball in good areas, and that is why they have been the most consistent. But today was a case of just we have been trying to find a way for him to play and almost the performance of Lungi the previous game gave us the opportunity to say, "You know what, it is worth a punt on him now." Q. You said the players not needing to be superheroes... FAF DU PLESSIS: Yes, okay. That is what it is. It is about doing your job and the basics extremely well and that is not needing to bowl at 160Ks, or swinging the ball both ways consistently. It is literally running and doing the basics of your job as well as you can and that is what he did today. There was nothing much about his bowling, he just ran in and bowled a good line and length. But Dwaine is a good example, but also with the bat. We said we want players to play more freely and now you see that that comes with building a partnership. I said a lot about the style of play we want to play. But in order to get there, you need to put the foundation first and then today was an example of that, getting a partnership going and then there was an opportunity for myself to say right, it is time to put the foot on the gas. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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