Faf du Plessis praises Graeme http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Smith-c90598 and the New Zealand team – Cricket News Update
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 at Potchefstroom and was all praise for Graeme Smith, who struck a match-winning hundred.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JEC-Franklin-c1684 scored brilliant half-centuries to help their team post a very competitive total of 260 runs on the board.
The home team replied strongly, thanks to a brilliant knock by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GC-Smith-c1473, who smashed 116 runs off 130 balls, in which he struck 14 boundaries. However, the left-hander did not find much of a support from the other end as the wickets kept on tumbling under pressure.
On the last ball of the match, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/R-McLaren-c2232 on strike. The lanky left-hander struck a massive six off the bowling of Franklin to help his side avoid a whitewash.
While expressing his views in the post-match presentation ceremony, the stand-in skipper admitted that his team has not played up to their potential in the series but Du Plessis is happy to have finished the battle positively. The skipper is not satisfied with the performance of his bowlers in the later part of the Kiwi innings.
He expressed, “It was nerve wracking, but it's nice to see the younger guys hold their nerve. It was very important for us as a team, we needed to win. We didn't play a great game but I'll take the win. I think they got a 160 in the last 20,that's way too much for us as a bowling team.”
Du Plessis also praised the efforts of Smith and the New Zealand side, who won the series by two games to one.
“Graeme knows how to do it [the chase] the best way for the others to learn is to play more. New Zealand played well, they are also a young team without key players and they played the better cricket," the captain added.
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