Visakhapatnam: South Africa captain Faf du Plessis feels that his team’s first innings batting performance will help them grow in confidence despite succumbing to a heavy defeat against India in the first Test here on Sunday.
Not many expected the Proteas to put up the fight that they did considering they were hammered in India four years ago. However, they batted with a lot of purpose and determination scoring 431 runs in response to India’s first innings total of 502. Their batting on the final day let them down with Mohammad Shami and Ravindra Jadeja getting the most out of the conditions guiding India to a 2-3-run victory.
“Yeah, really proud of the first innings, the way we batted. A lot of new players in our squad. There was an opportunity for us to go the other way and we didn’t. We played really well, senior players put their hands up in Quinny (Quinton de Kock) and Dean (Elgar) getting fantastic hundreds and to get 400 in the sub-continent is never anything easy to do,” said Du Plessis. (PTI)
