Faf du Plessis is not happy with how South Africa’s batting line-up performed against New Zealand

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was a happy man, as rain poured in Hamilton on Wednesday, abandoning the final day of the third Test against the Kiwis and thereby giving South Africa a 1-0 series victory. The visitors had been facing a huge task to save the Test, entering the last day after being reduced to 80 for five and still needing 95 runs to make New Zealand bat again.

The South African captain, who would have been second-fiddled by Quinton de Kock had rain not intervened, said he was prepared to defend all day and unleash his famous ‘blockathon’. ‘I was ready to come out and play my blockathon,’ du Plessis said.

“New Zealand outplayed us in this game and deserved to win and they will count themselves unlucky.I’m pleased with another series win away from home but to be honest I think we played very much under par, especially the batting unit,” he added.

Du Plessis’ examination of his top order’s batting woes in the series was not restricted to just the third Test first in which they slumped to 64/3 and then collapsed to 59/5 on Tuesday. In the first Test also, the Proteas were 22/3 after winning the toss until Dean Elgar came to their rescue with 140 and 100 partnerships with Temba Bavuma and du Plessis. Elgar’s century was the sole one scored by the visitors in the series.

Du Plessis also added that his team needed to ensure that those terrible batting collapses did not occur again on their tour of England in May, before the home series against Australia and India.

“In a test match when the series is on the line you are looking for your players to front up and make it as hard as possible for the opposition to get your wicket,” he said. “I thought… that didn’t happen. But the good, strong teams find ways to win test matches and series. And while we didn’t play very well, we somehow found ourselves winning another away series.”