South African captain Faf du Plessis showered praise on his batsman Theunis de Bruyn for the way he took on the Sri Lankan spinners on a fourth day SSC pitch to score a fighting century although it did not help his team’s cause of avoiding defeat.
“I am very proud of the way he’s gone about it. I thought he played spin exceptionally well. Something that I spoke about before this Test match was the ability to trust our defence a bit better, and he was a prime example of that. He took a few risks early on, and when the field was spread he was very good in his defence, and he waited to get his ones to get off strike. He was the perfect blueprint on how we should go about constructing innings in the subcontinent,” said Du Plessis.
“He looked more in control than my advice can help him. He’s a motivated guy, and I knew someone like that, who doesn’t get an opportunity to play Test cricket - when you do get an opportunity to get in the mix would get big runs, you could see that,” he said.
Du Plessis said that he was not a big fan of two-Test series but the way the game is moving it points to that kind of series in the future.
“It’s not ideal. If it was up to me, it would be minimum three-Test series. If there’s a 1-nil lead, you can play the second Test with the thought of still getting a result. All Test cricket is under pressure at the moment when it comes to the amount of cricket that we’re playing,” said Du Plessis.
“Also financially, the game’s not going five days anymore. People are losing a lot of money. On day four or five you’re not getting the crowds coming in any more. So it’s important that Test cricket is strong for me. It’s still the pinnacle of cricket. It will always be my favourite format. That’s why I’m trying to make sure we do everything possible to sustain Test cricket.
“Generally Test matches don’t go five days anymore and you don’t see 500 being posted often. I can only think of India v Sri Lanka or India v Bangladesh when the wickets are a little bit better, because both teams are better at playing spin and spin bowlers are in their sides. At the moment definitely the game is moving towards quicker results. The game is fast-forward as well. T20 cricket has introduced that, where everything happens at a quicker pace. But definitely from a conditions point of view it’s definitely harder than it used to be. Even in South Africa if you get to 250 or 280, as a batting unit you feel like you’ve done your job,” he said.
Du Plessis said that playing spin was a global issue/ “Whenever a team tours the subcontinent - whether it’s Australia or England or us - there’s always a question mark on how you play spin. It’s a world issue that we’re trying to get better at. I don’t think we play spin badly, but if you compare yourself to the subcontinent batters, then they’re obviously a step above us in that regard.
“When it comes to playing on green pitches and seaming pitches, we feel we can adapt better to those conditions. It has to be a cause of looking at how you can get your own home conditions to try and get exposed to these kinds of conditions a little more often, when you’re playing first-class cricket. That’s where the challenge lies for the South Africas, the Englands and the Australias of the world.”
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