Faf Du Plessis and Imran Tahir expressed their delight after their dominant T20 victory over New Zealand on Friday.
The visitors won by a comprehensive 78 runs, in a match headlined by Tahir’s brilliance with the ball. The No 1 T20 bowler picked up the Man of the Match award for his 5-24 and was the second-fastest bowler to reach 50 wickets (31 matches).
The wet conditions and the small ground was not conducive for spinners, but Tahir managed to reach his goals in the match with a proud performance. Tahir revealed that his performance came down to hard work.
‘I’ve been working hard, bowling hard in the nets and trying to see if could be successful in New Zealand,’ said Tahir in his post match interview. ‘Thank god it came out today and I’m quite pleased with that.’
Playing the way he did against the No 1 ranked T20 side made his performance all the more satisfying and Tahir respectfully complimented the hosts who they will now face in an ODI series starting on Sunday.
‘Definitely, I’m pleased. It’s a very great challenge. NZ are a great side and it’s always a challenge to play against these guys and I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s going to be a good series.’
Captain Faf du Plessis was happy with the condition of his squad and confirmed that they are confident for the upcoming matches.
‘The last six or seven months have been amazing for us as a team, so we are confident, but we understand that we have to every day start afresh and then rock up and perform. That’s all we can do. So we prepare hard and make sure every time we play quality opposition that we use our skills very well and then hopefully the result will take care of itself. ‘
Du Plessis is aware of the fixture congestion, but he’s confident that his side is well prepared for the ODIs to come.
‘It’s a straight turnaround and there’s not much preparation time. But as I said, we played a lot of one-day cricket the last three-four weeks against Sri Lanka, so we in a good mood for one-day cricket, ready to go and we look forward to what will be a good ODI series. ‘
Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
