Australia v South Africa 2nd ODI: Faf du Plessis shows total disregard for fragile Aussie batting
POT-STIRRING villain Faf du Plessis tried on his own style of mental disintegration in Adelaide, but Australia refused to take the biggest unspoken sledge of the summer laying down.
POT-STIRRING villain Faf du Plessis tried on his own style of mental disintegration in Adelaide, but Australia refused to take the biggest unspoken sledge of the summer laying down.
Du Plessis thought so little of Australia’s top order that he sent them in on a perfect batting wicket with the South Africa captain barely disguising his expectation that his bowling attack would again prize open the scars of Aaron Finch’s imploding top order.
He was right. Australia once again failed to bat out their 50 overs. But du Plessis didn’t count on Marcus Stoinis and Pat Cummins leading an inspired bowling fightback which proved that – bullish mind games aside – this was always a bat first pitch.
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As poorly as Australia batted, South Africa were worse and after falling short by seven runs they head to a series-decider in Hobart facing the chastening reality that they might have just got a little too big for their boots.
Two years ago du Plessis walked onto Adelaide Oval as public enemy No.1 after being caught in the middle of the mint-gate storm. The cocksure skipper had always been a glittering target for the aggressive Australians.
But on Friday he sought some subtle revenge by taking one look at the most pristine batting deck in the country and ordering his confidence-stricken opponents to pad up.
“Just trying to make sure we can hopefully get on the mental side of things,” said du Plessis.
“We’re going to stick them into bat and see if we can get some early wickets again.”
The plan worked, until it backfired spectacularly.
Bowling Australia out for a measly 231 made du Plessis’ call at the toss look like genius, but with no Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy in the South African batting order, their house of cards collapsed all too quickly.
Du Plessis is one of cricket’s true showmen and after several bitter and ugly slanging matches with Australia over the years, he saw a chance to laud over an old enemy that’s been crumbling before his very eyes.
That won’t be happening again in Hobart on Sunday.
There might have been another method behind du Plessis’ reasoning in almost daring Australia to rack up a big total on an Adelaide Oval road.
And it also proved a little too cute.
The World Cup is only six months away and sending Australia in on a batting have might have been du Plessis’ way of trying to “choke-proof” his side for the tournament that has haunted them throughout history.
South Africa’s record in World Cups is infamous, and to almost artificially create a tough, backs-to-the-wall situation for themselves would have been a cunning way to harden up an outfit desperate to break its hoodoo.
The stakes weren’t that high, but South Africa choked in Adelaide and this is a side that doesn’t let go of bad memories all that easily.
South Africa’s treatment of the match as more of an exercise than a match was backed up by the fact South Africa felt they could drop Andile Phehlukwayo, the strike bowler who had taken a game-high three wickets in the opening ODI win in Perth.
South African cricket isn’t necessarily flying at the moment, yet the confidence and boldness of du Plessis’ with one eye on the World Cup, stood in stark contrast to the gun-shy Australia clutching at straws.
But in the end, the willingness to treat Australia with even the slightest bit of contempt might come back to bite them.
“That’s just tactical,” the skipper said of the decision to drop their best bowler.
“As I said before the series, we are using these game just trying to find the best combinations and guys in positions to get them more experienced.
“We’re playing around with that No.7 position which is a batting all-rounder. We want to see what (Dwaine) Pretorious can do hopefully in the next two games.”
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