Du Plessis: 'Kirsten record did not cross my mind'
Faf du Plessis fell four runs short of a South African record when he scored 185 in the fourth One-Day International against Sri Lanka. But the thought of creating the record did not cross his mind, he says.
Published : Feb 08, 2017 17:04 IST
Faf du Plessis says Gary Kirsten's South African-record One-Day International score was not in his thoughts as he fell just short of eclipsing it against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Du Plessis hit a classy 185 at Newlands, the highest ODI score by any player at Cape Town but three runs shy of Kirsten's 188 not out hit against UAE in 1996.
The Proteas won by 40 runs despite a thrilling counter-attack led by Upul Tharanga (119) to go 4-0 up in the five-match series. Though denied his place in national history, Du Plessis was just happy to contribute to victory. He said: "I didn't know about the record so I'm just looking at it from my point of view. I'm very happy to get to 180. The record was something that would have been really nice but not for one second did I think of it and also 200 wasn't in my mind at that time.
"I was just trying to get as many runs as possible. My game's set up to not getting dot balls. I try and make sure I take the pressure off myself by rotating the strike and running well. Luckily, in our team we've got some amazingly quick guys between the wickets and we put a lot of pressure on the opposition. Our ones and twos, right through the series, have been unbelievable. We've almost been two or three times the Sri lankans and that is so difficult to bowl to, when you get guys that just continuously run you off your feet. And with that the skill in our batting line-up too with hitting boundaries."