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Proteas fired up for comeback

Johannesburg - The Proteas T20 squad will use the short-turn around in matches to review their approach for the second T20 International against the West Indies at Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.

Faf du Plessis says Chris Gayle’s performance on Friday evening was the difference between the two teams, and backed his players to come out fired up in Sunday’s second leg.  
 
“I can take a lot from Friday night,” Du Plessis said of the positives. “I honestly thought that we were the better team. Chris Gayle won them the match on his own.  For them to almost lose the game from the position they were; if we did that I would be very disappointed in our batting unit.
 
“I thought that batting first we batted cleverly,” he said. “We lost two wickets upfront but we got the runs going, the guys built the innings up beautifully. Two young guys batting together, it’s nice to see Rilee (Rossouw) and Dave (Miller) scoring some runs. 165 on a Newlands wicket was competitive.
 
“With the ball, if you take away two or three overs where Gayle took the bowling apart, I thought that we were in the game with good plans.”
 
Du Plessis gave young quick, Kagiso Rabada some encouragement after the lesson from Gayle, and urged the 19-year-old to stay focused and determined.   
 
“You can’t doubt yourself too much as a bowler,” he  said. “He  (Gayle) has done that to the best in the world, KG (Rabada) is very young in his career. He didn’t bowl bad balls; he was on the wrong side of Gayle. I never at one stage felt like he bowled badly, Gayle is so good at picking a particular bowler on the night that he wants.”  
 
The Proteas could opt for speedster, Marchant de Lange, for some firepower, with conditions at the Bullring likely to assist the paceman.
 
“The plan is to give everyone a go in these three games,” Du Plessis said. “That’s the thinking between myself and Russell (Domingo).  There are a lot of young guys and you want to give them opportunities with the big players resting.  It is the plan, I can’t guarantee it but Marchant is a quality bowler with pace so we are thinking of giving him a go somewhere.”
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