Faf du Plessis smacked five sixes in his superbly-paced 56-ball 84 against Punjab Kings in IPL 2023. But the essence of how du Plessis has evolved by maximising his strengths is best encapsulated by the first and second sixes he crunched off Harpreet Brar.
The second ball that du Plessis faced from Brar, he manufactured an inch or two of room and clubbed the ball down the ground. So when du Plessis again looked to create a bit of width, Harpreet knew the card that the opener would throw at him. So he duly fired one in at leg stump, only for du Plessis to thump it over cow corner. The salient feature in both those two shots was du Plessis keeping his head very still right through the time he completed his bat swing.
Curiously, while watching the replays, it looks like du Plessis is eyeing the extra-cover region. But he is a bottom-hand dominant player, with his hands held wide apart on the bat, and that could be the reason why he naturally tweaked his bat swing and tonked Harpreet through the on-side. Not just against spin but also while up against seam bowlers, he watched the ball with the eyes of a hawk and rarely lost the shape of his shots. In the 18th over, the way du Plessis picked the back-of-the-hand variation from Nathan Ellis and smashed the ball over the bowler’s head epitomises the point. As is often said by coaches: first head and shoulders leading into the ball, then legs and bat.
Undoubtedly, du Plessis has aged like a fine wine. It is true that he has consistently scored over 400 runs in the IPL since the start of the 2020 season. But in the ongoing IPL, he isn’t just averaging as high as 68.6, but scoring at an impressive strike-rate of 166.50. Let’s delve deeper to do some number-crunching on du Plessis’ strike rate.
His strike-rate against pace this season is 186.4, while against spin it stands at 155.8. There are certain openers who come out all guns blazing against pace, primarily, in the powerplay and then lose momentum while facing spin. Du Plessis, though, has turned into RCB’s main disruptor against both types of bowling.
He has added a little bit of flair and chutzpah as well to his batting. A case in point would be how du Plessis hoodwinked Romario Shepherd, the all-rounder, in the Caribbean Premier League game played between Guyana Amazon Warriors and St Lucia Kings last year. For a brief moment, as Shepherd charged to the crease, it felt as if du Plessis had decided to walk away – after all, he looked set to drop his guard and take his top hand off the bat handle. Then, at the last possible moment, he went back to his original batting position and successfully scooped Shepherd. Shepherd must have scratched his head in disbelief for a second or two. Some of the viewers too would have gasped in wonderment.
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To further track how du Plessis has steadily improved his game, we go back 16 years. In November 2007, Lancashire signed du Plessis as a Kolpak player. Mike Watkinson, Lancashire’s then-cricket manager, who has a keen eye for spotting talent, had said in his statement: “Francois is a very promising young batsman who has already made significant contributions in first-class cricket.”
Unfortunately, he had more of a bumpy ride during his time in England – right from the time he played for Todmorden Cricket Club to the Lancashire set-up. In fact, he could average just 28 runs over 24 matches for TCC. Even while playing for Lancashire, his strong bottom-hand grip meant that he whipped almost everything that was pitched on middle stump or middle-and-leg stump. But against the swinging Dukes ball, it was a struggle while facing deliveries bowled in the channel outside the off stump.
More than a decade and a half has passed since his stint with Lancashire. During that time, du Plessis returned to play for South Africa, his homeland, essaying some crucial knocks across all three formats of the game. He also led the side.
After his retirement from Test cricket, he has become one of the most sought-after cricketers in T20 leagues across the world. At 38, he is still a fine fielder. At 38, he is still the Alpha male. At 38, he should have also played for South Africa in the T20 World Cup in Australia, as well as the preceding tournament in the UAE. It wasn’t to be. With the IPL’s Orange Cap on his head, du Plessis is once again reminding us that age is just a number.
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