South African skipper Faf du Plessis was pretty with the performance of his team as they registered yet another comprehensive win in the ongoing Test series against India. By winning the second Test, the hosts have now taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

The conditions in Centurion were not similar to that of Cape Town and bowlers from both teams had to work hard to pick wickets. Du Plessis showered praises for his team’s efforts in the last five days and said the fielding was brilliant.

Also read: Rabada's girlfriend unhappy with Du Plessis

Talking about his team’s performance, Du Plessis said, “It took a lot of hard work over the last five days. We were on top pretty much most of the times. One of the harder Tests, given batting and bowling, was tough. We were amazing in the field. After Day 1, we were very disappointed. In that last 45 minutes of Day 1, we gave India a sniff and the chat after that was that we are gonna need a bit of character over the next four days.”

After a brilliant start in the first innings, South African middle order collapsed and they were bundled out for 335. Faf du Plessis said they needed to get 400, especially after the kind of start the top-order gave them. He described, “We were short in the first innings. We needed to get 400, especially from the position we were in, but for me, the vital time was the second innings. We kept pushing the scoring and we knew that anything over 250 would be challenging. So the guys were grinding hard to get over 250.”

Also read: Ngidi stole the show in Centurion Test

Replacing injured Dale Steyn in the Centurion Test, the debutant Lungi Ngidi grabbed the opportunity with both hands and returned with a 7-wicket haul in the match. The muscular seamer troubled the Indian batsmen especially skipper Virat Kohli throughout the Test and stole the show with figures of 6/39.

Praising Ngidi for his performance, Du Plessis said, “Special performance by Ngidi. He’s a great guy and we welcome him into the team. Amazing future that lad has. I look at the person’s personality the first thing and he’s a wonderful human being. I see him carrying this national attack for a few years. Morne’s catch was better than AB’s (chuckles). Morne is going to tell us a lot about that catch over the next few days. You can tell from his celebrations. Long strides like that across the field is a beautiful sight.”