Less pressure on us as we are playing as underdogs, says Faf du Plessis
Faf du Plessis has stated that there will be less pressure on the South African team as they will play as underdogs, referring to the side’s encounter with England at The Oval on Thursday. South Africa have injury concerns in pacer Dale Steyn while the same goes with England with Mark Wood.
The South African side has been tagged as the favourites for numerous editions of the World Cup before but has never qualified for the finals, thereby earning the tag of ‘chokers’. Today’s encounter between South Africa and England will present an interesting scenario as the former are hardly expected to win whereas the latter have been tagged as favourites. The skipper Faf du Plessis is of the belief that this will enable his side to play with less pressure.
“England are the favourites so if it means on the day there is less pressure on us then we can play freely. We are going in as underdogs and if that releases some players in the team then that is great,” he said in a press conference prior to the match, reported PTI.
South Africa lost eight of the 17 ODIs they have played in the past year while they have had a fairly good run this year too, with a 3-2 win over Pakistan and a 5-0 win over Sri Lanka both in home series. They comprehensively defeated Sri Lanka in their first warm-up match while the second warm-up match was washed out after they started well in the powerplay overs. The Proteas are still not expected to win against the big teams like the top-ranked England side but the skipper reckoned that the side will play good cricket.
"Whether you are favourites or not, you still have to play good cricket. They deservedly have the tag because they are the home nation and have consistently played good cricket. But you will face such different opposition through this tournament so it is about making sure you stay focussed for the whole tournament,” expressed the 34-year-old.
The South African bowling attack still features among the best at the ten-nation tournament. The young Kagiso Rabada will lead the attack which features the likes of Dale Steyn, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi among others. The 24-year-old has risen up the ranks since his debut in 2015 and already has 106 wickets to his name in 66 matches. The skipper shared that there is no need to advice Rabada with respect to his bowling.
"KG does not need any guidance from me. I can speak to him from a tactical point of view but I won't tell him how to bowl, he knows more than I do. It is about setting him free. World Cups are for people to perform and KG will want to make this his stage,” explained the Titans player.
Veteran pacer Steyn’s shoulder injury comes as a big blow for the side but Du Plessis reckoned that he was ready for it.
Dale is a big loss to our team but we expected it. When we picked the squad he was 60 per cent ready so we anticipated for this to happen. But a fit Dale Steyn makes our attack a strong one so we need to make a few changes to our team for England. Our bowling is one of our X-factors," he signed off.
