After having a bad day at the office, South Africa registered some good fielding towards the end of the day during the final Test against England. Captain Faf du Plessis showed a brilliant piece of fielding that lifted their morale when they come out to bat on the fourth day.
Faf du Plessis took a stunning one-handed diving catch to dismiss England captain Joe Root at The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg off Beuran Hendricks who bowled a full and wide delivery. Root tried to hit hard but got the edge and flew to Faf du Plessis who run after it and stretched his full body to hold the ball. With this, Hendricks completed his maiden fifer in Test cricket.
Root was dismissed for 58 off 96 with 5 fours and a six. It was Sam Curran and Mark Wood who scored quickfire 35 and 18 runs respectively at the end. However, England were eventually bundled out for 248, giving a target of 466 runs for the hosts to win the match.
Amazing amazing catch. pic.twitter.com/NDs0usAeTW
— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) January 26, 2020
Faf du Plessis will now have to lead from the front with the bat as well. However, the team management and head coach Mark Boucher has backed him, citing that he will lead the side as well.
“He is under pressure from a weight of runs as well, from captaincy, all that stuff,”Boucher said.“The players back him in the dressing room. It’s nice to see him take that catch towards the end of the day. Hopefully it will lift his spirits. He will go out there and fight. He understands that he is the leader and he wants to do well and lead from the front. Hopefully there is something big around the corner for Faf. The whole scene is set for him to come in under pressure and score big runs and hopefully get us close to winning a Test match.”
Brief scores: England 400 & 248 (Joe Root 58; Beuran Hendricks 5-64) lead South Africa 183 (Quinton de Kock 76; Mark Wood 5-46) by 465 runs.
