Faf du Plessis: South Africa, I just wanna show you how good I am still if you have forgotten

Faf du Plessis spoke about his mental state during this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he finished one spot short of wearing the coveted ‘Orange Cap’ for the season.

The veteran Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opening batter was absolutely brilliant at the top of the order for his team. Du Plessis made 633 runs from his 16 innings in the two-part IPL 2021 played in India and UAE on neutral venues with an average of 45.21 and strike-rate of 138.20.

The South African right-hander’s partnership up at the top with young Ruturaj Gaikwad (635 runs) was instrumental in CSK winning their fourth IPL title in the league’s history.

Talking about his consistent performances in the yellow jersey, Faf du Plessis said he recognises now that he has a “good batting voice and a bad batting voice” within his head. During this phase, the 37-year-old said, he tried to listen the positive call a lot more and kept the negative vibes at bay.

“I have a good batting voice and a bad batting voice. I have put things in place and ensure that I listen to this good batting voice. To give you a practical example of this voice, in this last IPL, I had a fantastic IPL, to the point where the goals I set for myself were to be in the top-3 right from the beginning (top three batters). And I get along this goal pretty well, but obviously, through the process of this, there’s this positive and negative voice,” Du Plessis said in a podcast with Paddy Upton, the former India mental conditioning coach.

“But to reference one such incident, I’m in the race, but in the semifinal, I get a one and everyone shoots past me, and then I’m sitting at six. So, we win the game and go into the final. It’s a big game, and this negative voice goes, ‘no, you’re not making it, they’re too far away. Actually, you know what, you’re a little bit out of form, I don’t know how you will get runs in the final. Oh, it’s a big game, you got one in the last game’, and this voice tells me a failure.”

Also Read – ‘Ridiculous’ – CSA Mentions Ngidi, Ignores Faf Du Plessis, Tahir In Congratulatory Message For CSK

Faf du Plessis was terrific with the bat for CSK in IPL 2021.

Faf du Plessis lets bat do the talking after being sacked by CSA

Through this year’s IPL with CSK, Faf du Plessis also reinforced the fact that he still has a lot of cricket left in him. The batter struck as many as six half-centuries, including a pivotal 86 off 59 balls in the final against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The breezy knock played on a good batting track in Dubai featured 7 fours and 3 sixes and allowed CSK to post a gigantic 192/3, before they restricted KKR down to just 165/9.

Du Plessis said his thought process was such that he wanted to push as hard as he possibly can to end with the ‘Orange Cap’. This, not to go past his young teammate Gaikwad but to add as many runs as he can to CSK’s tally. During that innings, he confessed, he also had a mindset where he wanted to prove a point to Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the selectors.

“You could have listened to it (negative voice), and I would have in the past, but then this positive voice goes, top three is your goal. You play your best when it’s high-pressure. You’re Mr. Dependable,” Du Plessis said.

“When pressure is at the highest, that’s you. Ok, what do you need? 40 runs to get into the top three, well, no, I’ll make 83 runs to be number 1. I want that Orange Cap. Also, I wanna go, ‘Cricket South Africa, I just wanna show you how good I am still if you have forgotten it’.”

“Amazingly that final went exactly how I visualised it in my head, thought about it in my head and spoke about it in my diary,” said ex Proteas captain, giving another shining example of visualisation in cricket.

The IPL 2021 was doubly important for Faf du Plessis after being left out of the ODI and T20I sides by South Africa, despite hinting he is very much available for the T20 World Cup in UAE. Du Plessis made 313 of his overall tournament runs in tricky conditions in UAE but wasn’t considered for the T20 World Cup that followed on similar pitches, which signalled a direct rift between the experienced cricketer and the CSA board regime.