With his team putting not a single wrong step in the two-Test series, decimating Bangladesh in both the games, South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis ended up giving a word of advice to the visitors who looked completely out of sorts in the testing conditions.
Barring the first innings in Potchefstroom, when Mushfiqur Rahim & Co. managed to post 320, they crossed the 150-run mark only once in the next three innings. In the second Test, they scored 147 in reply to South Africa’s mammoth 573 and could manage 172 after being enforced to follow-on, thus losing the game by an innings and 254 runs. The game was finished inside three days with the tourists not being able to last for even 50 overs in both the innings.
The team that defeated the likes of England, Sri Lanka and Australia in Tests in the last couple of years, its performance in the previous two Tests surprised many including du Plessis who began his press-conference with a flurry of advice for them.
“The last year or two you could see they were a high-quality Test team, so I expected a bigger fight. I didn’t expect them to win the series, but I expected there would be sessions in the game where we would have to be absorbing a bit of pressure because they do have the skill,” said du Plessis. “But with that, you have just to say that our team did it better. If they tried to put pressure on us, we responded positively and aggressively and basically five or six overs after that we were back and dominated the game.”
South Africa deployed the short ball strategy against the visitors, and it paid off as the batsmen never looked at ease against the rising deliveries directed towards their body and the team ended up falling like a pack of cards.
“It’s simple, but it’s hard because the bounce is uncomfortable,” he said. “You have to get rid of the fear of the short ball, and once you have a good plan on how to counter that, then you will get better.”
Bangladesh’s bowlers also failed to capitalise on the bouncy tracks. South Africa’s run-rate in the game was well over four throughout the innings, facing little or no problems at all. Speaking about that, du Plessis said:
“Bangladesh don’t have tall bowlers. In these conditions, you need bowlers who are a bit taller and who can get a bit more bounce. Bounce and pace are what you need when you go to South Africa or Australia.
“Then there’s control. That was lacking from Bangladesh in this series. As a batting unit, we felt that every over there was a boundary you could score, so control is very important,” he added.