Very relieved, says Faf du Plessis after first win in WC

South Africa finally managed to win their first match in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup and the victory came as a sense of relief for the Proteas captain Faf du Plessis. "Very relieved and a little bit lighter," Sport24.co.za quoted Du Plessis as saying.

After losing three consecutive matches and one match being abandoned, South Africa made a solid comeback against the bottom-placed team Afghanistan over whom they registered a massive nine-wicket victory. Imran Tahir took four wickets while Chris Morris got hold of three wickets as they restricted Afghanistan to just 125 runs. Andile Phehlukwayo also played brilliantly as he took two wickets and conceded just 18 runs in his eight over whereas with the bat, he played an unbeaten knock of 17 runs.

However, due to rain, the match was reduced to 48 overs and the target went up by one run. South Africa easily chased the target, with the help of Quinton de Kock's 68-run inning. Du Plessis is exhilarated with his team's all-around performance as he said that they displayed a solid performance in all the departments.

"We needed to be solid. We're showing signs of good cricket but we're showing other signs of inconsistency. Today was an opportunity for us to put our peg in the ground with a solid performance in all departments, and I thought we did that. We bowled really well and we were really clinical in chasing the score down," he said. Du Plessis praised the bowlers and said: "I was really pleased with the bowlers and once again Andile and Chris were very good in the middle there. The two of them are starting to put in some consistent performances for us with the ball now. Imran is always special, especially on a wicket like that where it is not suited to spinners. It was an amazing bowling performance."

South Africa will now face New Zealand on June 19. 

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