Remember the time when it was almost impossible for any team to beat Australia, not just in Australia but also anywhere else in the world. Well, time has changed a lot since and South Africa's victory over Australia in the Hobart test delightfully approves it.
This is the third consecutive series win for South Africa against Australia. Australia, who were whitewashed (5-0) by the Proteas in the ODI series had no answers in Tests as well. Eight years ago in the captaincy of Graeme Smith, South Africa won the test series in Australia 2-1, four years later they won another 3 match test series 1-0. But now, the skipper Faf du Plessis has made it quite clear that they will not rest for anything less than a 3-0 complete whitewash.
Australia were bowled out for 161 and South Africa won the test by an innings and 80 runs.
Excerpts from his post match conference in which Du Plessis lauded his team's effort :-
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This team has been very close to exceptional. There haven't been many things we've done wrong. We have been very consistent in the way we perform. We are not relying on one or two players. All XI are putting our hands up at different times and that's what you want from your team."
"We came across here with a lot of confidence." South Africa dismissed Australia for just 85 runs in the first innings of the test. They exploited the weakness of the Australian team.
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| Vernon Philander celebrating with his teammates after picking up a wicket |
"When you're a team that's under the pump and under pressure and not playing the way as well as you like, confidence will fade away. It's hard to fake it. We didn't give them the opportunity to do it. It was important to keep the important guys in the team quiet - David Warner and Steve Smith. If you can put a lot of pressure on them, younger guys won't have that same punch. We made sure those guys have been relatively quiet in the series. Even guys like [Mitchell] Starc, he bowled well in that one spell but if you're on top, that's when you get a five-for and you clean the tail up. We were just really good in making sure we stopped that."
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| Quinton de Kock during his century in 2nd test against Australia |
South Africa cleaned up Australia's batting lineup on the fourth morning in just 95 minutes.
"I didn't expect it to happen that quickly. Yesterday our bowling was exceptional. The last hour and a half we were so good in our areas and relentless. We didn't get the results we wanted but we knew today if we came back, it would change for us. This is one of those sessions we will always remember as a team, that won us the series and it was unbelievable."
Faf du Plessis has made it very clear that this dominant South African team will not be complacent and will take everything all they can in this trip to Australia.
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This is the mission for us now. We want to do that very badly. We won't rest on our laurels and be happy with 2-0 or 2-1. We've got Australia in a position where they are under pressure and we don't want to let that go.
It's hard enough to get them in this position so we will do everything we can to make it 3-0."
Scores
Australia 1st Innings - 85/10 (32.5 Overs)
South Africa 1st Innings - 326/10 (100.1 Overs)
Australia 2nd Innings - 161/10 (60.1 Overs)
South Africa won by an innings and 80 runs.
The final test will be their first day-night test in Adelaide which starts on 24 Nov.
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