Faf du Plessis points fingers at the IPL again after South Africa’s defeat

In the aftermath of South Africa being knocked out of the World Cup at the hands of Pakistan, skipper Faf du Plessis has taken a subtle dig at the IPL again. In the post-match conference after the game, du Plessis dropped the bombshell that they tried to stop Kagiso Rabada from playing in the IPL. The South African captain also stated that the workload in the IPL took a toll on his pace spearhead and affected his performance during the tournament. Du Plessis had earlier blamed the IPL for Dale Steyn being ruled out from the tournament.

Speaking to the media after the Proteas were knocked out of the tournament, du Plessis said:

“I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect answer for that because he’s probably biting on too much. But we did try and get him not to go to the IPL; to try and stay and get fresh. That wasn’t the case of — and then when he went there, we were like, let’s try and get him back halfway through the IPL because it’s important, not just for him, but a few other players.”

He further elaborated:

“I mean, I spoke about it before the IPL even started, that it’s important that we try and find space to rest our three-format players, because they play all the formats all the time, and then IPL. So I don’t think it’s not necessarily just the IPL, but it was important for a few guys to rest; and the fact that they didn’t meant that they — you know, they came into the tournament not fresh. That’s not an excuse; that’s just a fact. And KG is — you can see that his pace is probably a little bit down from where he normally is.”

Rabada has appeared under par during the World Cup, only picking up 6 wickets in 6 matches at an average 50.83. The lack of performance from their spearhead has meant that the Proteas have looked toothless in their bowling attack, with the opposition finding it easy to score against them.