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Faf lauds 'complete' team performance

Cape Town - Proteas captain, Faf du Plessis, has praised a ‘complete’ team performance in the emphatic 142-run win against Australia in the second One-Day International (ODI) at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.

The batsmen once again set up the perfect platform, but it was the disciplined and improved bowling performance which pleased the skipper the most.

“I can’t name one thing, it was a complete game,” he said after the match. “Once again we set it up beautifully with the bat and when you come off a high like Centurion it would have been easy to think we would rock up and do it again.

We laid the foundation at the top, at times when it was tough to bat the guys hung in, everyone played a good role. Every batter that came in played well, JP (Duminy) came in and played a great innings with impetus.

“With the ball, we took the lessons and mistakes from the previous game, we were relentless in our areas and gave them nothing. It was a great disciplined performance and as good a performance you will see from us. To beat Australia, who are a fantastic one-day team, like that means that we have competed in every single aspect of the game.”

Du Plessis’ sixth ODI hundred made him the first player to score a T20, ODI and Test hundred at a single venue, and also the second player (Tillakaratne Dilshan is the first player) to score a T20, ODI and Test century as captain.  

“Australia for me are the best team to play,” he said. “I love playing against the Aussies, they are a competitive team.

When you score hundreds against the best that is always the nicest innings’. I enjoyed that innings, everything felt good technically, hopefully I can score some more big runs for this team in this series.”

The win also completed a hat-trick of victories against Australia this weekend, and along with the Springboks’ win in the Rugby Championship on Saturday, capped off a superb weekend for South African sport.

‘It’s been a crazy good weekend,” he said of the results. “We set it up on Friday by batting unbelievably well but yesterday was quite special. The Boks have been under pressure and from a team point of view we wanted to support them as a team.

We didn’t make it optional, the whole squad was there to show them that we have their backs, and they played really well.

“I’m extremely happy for them with the win and today topped it off to make it a fantastic weekend of sport for South Africa.”

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