Faf du Plessis has explained how Hashim Amla’s concussion scare unsettled the Proteas dressing room during their chase of 312 at the Oval against England.
It was an awful batting display from the Proteas. En route to a target of 312, they crumbled and only managed 207 in 39.5 overs.
At the start, the Proteas built momentum very slowly due to England’s discipline with the ball in hand. The hosts angled the ball consistently at the stumps, shutting down their scoring opportunities.
Their momentum was disrupted further when Amla took a blow to his grill and was forced to leave the field for a concussion test that saw him cleared just shortly before the Proteas were reduced to 180-7.
READ: Du Plessis laments early wickets
Du Plessis acknowledged that he was disappointed with the manner in which he and his batsmen got out and how the Amla incident made their recovery from a slow start even harder.
‘Yeah, I think the flow of innings, unfortunately, started with Hashim coming off the field,’ said Du Plessis after his side’s 104-run defeat to England at the Oval.
‘When you are chasing a big score like 310 what you need is a good start. You need to make sure that you settle the bats in the dressing room with a good partnership, whether it’s zero down or one down, but a good start is really important and obviously with him coming off, and then a few of us later, Aiden got out and then one or two of us later.
‘When you go three down on a big score like that, you’re making it really tough for our batting unit to perform. And then the score just looks big. It looks too far. It looks too difficult to get there.’
FIVE TAKEAWAYS: England vs Proteas
From the outset, the pitch looked conducive for batting. In fact, England at the end of their innings felt that they had too little. Du Plessis agreed and admitted to his batsmen’s struggle against Jofra Archer.
‘The pitch was good enough for us to have a good start. Obviously, Archer bowled really well with the new ball, as I said before, this game. A lot of the guys hasn’t played against him. So it will take time for international batters to get used to his action.
‘As I said, [he is] a little bit nippier when he hits the crease and that’s why he is such an X-Factor bowler. He broke through our opening three there, and that pretty much was always going to be a tough ask from there.’
JON CARDINELLI COLUMN: Proteas still struggling with identity
Nothing should be taken away from Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen, who performed well under the circumstances.
‘Quin [De Kock] batted really well. Rassie once again showed good composure. So yeah, it’s just for me now, it’s about making sure the dressing room, look at the areas that we got it wrong and just move on. That’s it.’
The Proteas will take on Bangladesh at the Oval on Sunday, before their clash with India in Southampton on Wednesday.
Photo: Alex Davidson/Getty Images
