When the ODI series between South Africa and Australia commenced, it was perceived that despite sending a second string team, Australia would do well. The recent form was with Australia, as they had come on the back of a convincing 4-1 series win over Sri Lanka away from home. South Africa’s recent form, though, didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, as they had been found wanting in the tri-series in Caribbean and didn’t make it to the finals.
However, after 4 matches, the Proteas have clearly shown what they are capable of. Despite not having the services of regular skipper AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis has led South Africa phenomenally well and has been way ahead of his Australian counterpart Steven Smith. Ahead of the fifth ODI, the Proteas captain admitted that he had set his vision for an elusive 5-0 whitewash.
“As a captain, it’s important the intensity we play at. That does not always mean verbally, it’s body language and the way you carry yourself on the field,” du Plessis said. “When there is a battle that asks for another battle to come their way, that will happen. We are a team that will stand up against that. If that’s required of us as a team, we will also go into that space, but it’s a very focused and channelled aggression; more of a body language thing.”
Praising his batsmen in particular, du Plessis fully lauded wicketkeeper Quinton De Kock. “I am really impressed with the style of cricket we’ve played,” du Plessis said. “The first game set the tone for us where Quinton played one of the best one-day knocks you will see and then out-batting has been a level above what we’ve seen in the past. If you compare that to their batting, which is just as strong possibly on paper, maybe even stronger but they haven’t matched up with our batters at all. We haven’t allowed them to compete at times and even when they looked like they were going to compete, we stuck in and waited for the opportunity.”
Opening up on the motivation of whitewashing a top side, du Plessis added, “We want to reach higher levels and achieve greater things than anyone else. From that perspective 5-0 is very important,” du Plessis said. “The fact that the Test series comes straight after this and 60% to 70% of both teams’ players are the same, the motivation of 5-0 will mean a lot to me.”