SA vs ENG | Win against England start of new chapter for South African cricket, feels Faf du Plessis

While the year 2019 started with two successive Test wins for South Africa against Pakistan, their form went down after the home series loss against Sri Lanka. Then followed the shameful World Cup exit, after which they lost another Test series 3-0 in India. To top all of that, the off-field issues concerning the suspension of CEO Thabang Moroe shook the entire structure of Cricket South Africa.

But the 107-run victory against England in the recently concluded Test gives them hope and skipper Faf du Plessis believes that the victory might potentially be the beginning of a new chapter in South African cricket.

"We needed that [the win]. Obviously the last couple of months, as a Test team, have been tough for us, but we worked really hard this week. I thought it was a very, very good Test match, two teams fighting really hard all the way, and today's effort was incredible,” said du Plessis at the post-match presentation, reported Cricbuzz.

"We haven't won a Test match in a while. It's the start of a new chapter. We want to make sure we're improving as a Test team again. We want to go up to better things again and this is just the start. We know it's going to be a long journey to get there, but we'll make sure we keep working hard and putting in the right things."

Meanwhile, amongst other troubles are the retirements of stalwarts like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and AB de Villiers, but Faf believes that the youngsters spearheaded by Rabada bring hope to the side.

"We've had Morne and Dale and other guys like that, KG, step up when there were old bowlers bowling at the time and now we're gonna need one or two more to come to the fore."