Johannesburg - Wrapping up a whitewash 3-0 series victory with an innings and 118 runs over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, Proteas captain Faf du Plessis was more pleased about the team’s consistency over the three matches than about the comprehensive rout of the visitors.
The Proteas have been a force of epic proportions throughout the series which saw them claim wins of 206 runs at St George’s Park and 282 runs at Newlands before the annihilation at the Wanderers.
“I won’t say it is one of our best performances, I would say it is the most consistent, that is what we’ve asked for right at the start of the series,” Du Plessis said.
“You expect in these conditions to be on top of Sri Lanka at times but for me it was about making sure 95 to 99 percent of the time we can string together consistent performances and we’ve done that.
“I think in the 13 days of Test cricket we’ve been on top 95 percent of the time so we are extremely pleased with that where we’ve been bowling consistent, batting consistent as well as fielding.”
The Proteas Test team has made a stunning turnaround from their series loss against England a year ago to series victories against New Zealand in South Africa, and a 2-1 rout of Australia Down Under.
Du Plessis believe his side was far from the polished product as they look to reclaim the world number-one ranking it conceded following the England series.
“We had pretty clear goals, we have been very goal-driven over the last six months, and has been very effective,” he said.
“Series by series we set our challenges and goals and next is New Zealand but we want to get back to number-one.
“Moving on to every challenge we want to try and improve, for me we are not the finished article yet, we definitely have a long way to go.”
Du Plessis said he was particularly pleased with frontline seam bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander’s contribution with the ball in hand but believed there was still room for improvement from the batting lineup.
Rabada and Philander were the top bowlers in the series taking 19 and 17 wickets apiece respectively.
“Consistency in batting is still something we want to get better at, we are batting at 70 percent although it is in tough conditions,” Du Plessis said.
“The bowlers in these conditions with someone like Vernon (Philander) and KG (Kagiso Rabada) is really good.
“It is good to see someone like Keshav (Maharaj), on wickets that don’t assist him a lot, shows a lot of positive signs going forward as the number one spinner in our team.”
Du Plessis said the team was still looking at a third seamer for consistent performances going forward to strike the right balance.
Making a return to the Test side after almost three years, Wayne Parnell made a strong case producing career-best bowling figures of 4/51.