Faf du Plessis - Best South African Opener Ever? | Career | Stats

Whenever we talk about the best players from the South African Cricket Team, the names that instantly pops up in our mind are Jonty Rhodes or Ab de Villiers. While one was the greatest fielder, the other was highly regarded as Mr. 360. But one underrated player who has had an equal level of impact with his performance for the South African Cricket Team, if not higher, is Faf du Plessis. Faf came in as a young opening batsman and finished off by becoming one of the most successful South African captains. Apart from his international cricket career, he has been a key figure in two of the most popular teams in the Indian Premier League. 

So, in this article by ZAP, let's know more about Faf Du Plessis, his life, his stats and records throughout his career.

With his unorthodox batting stance, he used to hit some really electrifying shots all around the park with his favorite region being over the covers.

Usually, batters who open the innings, prefer to time the ball, but his batting style was equally uncanny as his stance. He used to smash every ball that fell into his radar, it didn't matter if it was the first one or last one. 

Along with his batting and captaincy records, another thing for which he was highly praised was his spectacular fielding. He used to grab stunners every now and then. We often saw him creating those extra chances into a legit catch and those catches would eventually change the course of the game many times.  

Faf du Plessis - Early life and domestic cricket career 

Faf du Plessis on 13th July 1984 (is currently 40 years old) in Pretoria, South Africa. He did his schooling from Afrikaanse Boy’s High School and he completed his graduation from University of Pretoria. He played his domestic cricket for Northerns and Titans. In 2011, he was one of the four players to be named in South Africa’s 30 man squad for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and since then has never looked back. His grit and constant hard work earned him his maiden cap the same year. 

Faf du Plessis - International Cricket Career, Stats, Records

Within a span of two years, Faf made his international debut across all the three formats. Firstly, made his ODI debut on 18 January, 2011 V India. Then he made his T20I debut on 8 September, 2012 V England. Lastly, he made his test debut on 23 November, 2012 V Australia. 

What made Faf special was his leadership qualities. He was declared as test captain of the South African cricket team in December 2016 after Ab de Villiers’ retirement. Later, he became captain across all the three formats. His winning percentage is 73.68% in ODI as South Africa’s captain. He became the first captain in the world to defeat Australia in Australia in all three formats. Not only that, he is the first and only international captain to whitewash Australia in a five match ODI series winning by 5-0. 

He was a true leader, even his with his cricket bat performance never compromised due to the burden of leading the team. He became the first South African to score centuries in all formats of the game. He was even named as South African cricketer of the year in 2019.

Plessis played his last ODI on 6 July, 2019 V Australia, his last T20I on 1 December, 2020 V England and last test on 4 February, 2021 V Pakistan. 

International stats of Faf du Plessis 

IPL, BBL and SAT20

Faf du Plessis has played for a number of IPL franchises. He started with Chennai Super Kings in 2011 till 2015 and then again in 2018 till 2021. In between, for a couple of seasons, he was picked by Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 and 2017 

Now, from 2022, he is presenting Royal Challengers Bangalore and is even leading the side since then. 

Faf du Plessis’s performance with different IPL franchises : 

In SA T20 league and in Big Bash League, he plays for Joburg Super Kings and Perth Scorchers respectively. In total, he has played only 9 matches in Big bash league and has scored 177 runs with an average of 22.12.