Like fine wine
Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers have a boutique wine business. If their wines age in the same manner as du Plessis is ageing, they are worth every cent.
On 10 December 2010, Steven Musgrove found himself cutting up Faf du Plessis’ breakfast for him. du Plessis was in severe pain and had little upper-body movement. The intercostal rib injury he had suffered a couple of weeks before was not healing well, but he had not let it put him out of commission. du Plessis was playing with a mummy strap around his midriff and the help of painkilling injections. That morning, he was preparing to take part in the MTN40 final.
Faf du Plessis belongs to the Graeme Pollock school of thought. He would have to be bedridden to miss a match. In 1971, Pollock damaged his right eye during a club game. His eye was not fully healed when he joined a Rest of the World team in Australia about a month later. Pollock walking onto the field with a prescription lens for one eye and glass for the other was no different to a concert pianist taking with one hand in a cast to perform a complex piece that required the use of two hands.
At one point during his innings, Pollock asked his batting partner to farm the strike for about 15 minutes. He could not see through his lenses. The heat was so bad he was sweating profusely and reached a point where his handkerchief was sodden and he could not use it to wipe his lenses. Pollock scored 130 that day.
David Dyer once said, “Graeme just loves batting.” Pollock would rather risk aggravating an existing injury than be on the outside looking in while others played. du Plessis’ instinct is to go to battle. That is his default setting. He was raised to put the team’s needs before his own. When he was 11, his father asked him to continue a rugby match with a broken clavicle because the team needed three points to win.
When du Plessis arrived at the crease, Titans was on 29 for three. He produced an innings that did not betray that he had a level-two intercostal tear as he led the Titans to 227. He was the last man standing with an unbeaten 111 off 96. No other Titans batter crossed the 40-run mark.
In 2010 du Plessis also had a point to prove. He wanted to show that he was a valuable member of the Titans’ set-up.
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In 2012, Chris Gayle solidified his reputation as a boundary-hitting machine. The Universe Boss smashed 46 fours and 59 sixes. It was his best IPL season. He averaged 61.08 at a strike rate of 160.74 in 15 matches. Gayle was a one-man army who scored 31% of RCB’s total runs. He faced 733 deliveries, the most he faced in a single season.
That year, Faf du Plessis made his IPL debut. His batting had improved since his England club cricket spell with Todmorden Cricket Club in 2007. When he played for TCC, he was a walking wicket and didn’t do much besides field exceptionally well for the club. He averaged 28 runs over 24 matches for TCC.
Somehow, he made the step up to Lancashire in 2008 - they even offered him a Kolpak contract. Maybe the selectors went with his SA domestic season because he was exceptional for Titans that year. It also helped that many people viewed him as an exceptional talent with a high ceiling. At best, du Plessis was an average batter for Lancashire early on.
Though he had improved by the time he joined Chennai Super Kings in 2012, du Plessis was not shooting the lights out in T20 cricket. In his debut IPL season, he averaged 33.16 at a strike rate of 130.92. His boundary-hitting (29 fours and 17 sixes in 13 matches) was not top-tier.
While Gayle made a career out of dispatching batters all over the park, du Plessis made a career of being that unselfish, self-sacrificing, charitable teammate. At Todmorden, he was this great guy who did all he could for the club on and off the field. There was a brief spell when he batted at number five and added value to Lancashire with spin bowling.
Faf du Plessis is the last person anyone expected to upstage Chris Gayle. But, 38-year-old du Plessis is playing at a startling level, even for him. Most top T20 batters are either destructive or dependable, this version of du Plessis falls into that rare category that is both. He is helping define what a modern opener does. du Plessis is dominating in the PowerPlay and keeps a good tempo in the middle overs.
Kyle Verreynne and David Bedingham occupy a special place in Eric Lefson's coaching career at Wynberg Boy's High. They were wicket-keeper/batters who held the team together during their time at Wynberg. "They averaged more than 50 in their years of first team cricket. They were both brilliant, yet also different. Cricket was natural for David, while it required application for Kyle. They both worked hard, but Kyle always had to work a little harder."
du Plessis took the scenic road to professional and international cricket compared to his long-time friend and Affies teammate, AB de Villiers. When de Villiers made his international debut in 2004, du Plessis was joining Todmorden. In 2008, AB de Villiers made his IPL debut while du Plessis was cementing his place in the Titans set-up.
The scenic route equipped du Plessis with the ability to 'interpret failure and discomfort as growth was part of the learning process.' He developed a growth mindset. Over the years he has learned about swing planes, power generation and how one can add an extra 10% or 20% to their game.
He has been adding these 10 and 20 percentage points to his batting since 2017. According to
, since 2017, du Plessis has averaged less than 35 only once.Nothing demonstrates this more than a look at how he has fared against spin. Like most South African batters, du Plessis was raised on a staple of right-arm pace. Like most South Africans, he struggled against spin. In 2012, he had a strike rate of 108.73 against spin in the IPL. In 2023, he was striking at 149.01 after nine games. That is a big leap. According to Mike Hesson, his game against spin is something du Plessis was looking at improving on of late. He made technical and mental adjustments.
Between 2017 and 2021, du Plessis scored 1032 runs against spin at a strike rate of 115.80 on the T20. From the start of 2022, he has scored 900 runs against spin with his strike rate shooting up to 138.42. In 2022, du Plessis immersed himself in T20 cricket, playing 50 matches in various leagues. That makes his strike rate against spin even more impressive. He has played spin more and still managed to show a huge improvement.
When du Plessis made his IPL debut, in 2012, T20 cricket was still finding its way in the world. Everyone was taking lessons from the West Indies and strike rates of around 120 were still acceptable. 158 and 146 were the average first and second innings scores. In 2023 teams are averaging 179 and 165 in the first and second innings.
T20 cricket is now faster, flashier and more 360. It’s on speed dial and certainly no country for old men. T20 cricket has evolved and du Plessis has evolved with it. At the start of his IPL career, he hit a boundary once in about seven deliveries. In 2023, he faces around 4.63 balls for a boundary. du Plessis might have started slow, now he has become a cheat code of sorts. He was the first player to cross the 400-run mark in IPL 2023. His new approach elevated him to fourth on the list of fastest players to reach 3500 runs in the IPL.
In 2017, when Chris Gayle was 38, he hit 15 fours and 14 sixes in 9 IPL matches. Age was catching up and exposed him to be a mere mortal. In 2023, du Plessis is 38 and is the leading run-scorer with 466 runs that have featured 28 sixes and 35 fours after nine matches. He is averaging 58.25 at a strike rate of 159.59.
du Plessis scored 225 of his 466 runs while struggling with an intercostal rib injury. He batted with a mummy strap around his midriff. It was 2010 all over again. In 2010, du Plessis played in the later stages of the MTN40 because the tournament allowed rolling subs. In 2023, du Plessis batted in four matches he could have missed under normal circumstances thanks to the Impact Player rule. In both instances, teams pick (picked) 12 players.
Just like in 2010, du Plessis has a point to prove. In March 2023, du Plessis made it clear that his primary goal was to win a title with the South African T20 team. With this IPL run, he is showing that he can still add value. He is ageing like fine wine.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS
